Ben Affleck Takes THE STAND

Great news! Ben Affleck will be directing (and adapting) Stephen King's The Stand for Warner Bros. Imagine going back twenty years and telling someone that Affleck would direct The Stand and that this was a good thing. They would be befuddled.

But the truth is that over the last decade Affleck has shown a major affinity for strong character work in his films, and the characters are what The Stand is really all about. With him on board I feel very, very comfortable with the adaptation (although at this point I'm not sure if they're still doing two movies or trying to jam it all into one).

Affleck is currently directing Argo, a true story about how the CIA used a Hollywood production cover story (with Jack Kirby concept art!) to rescue Americans from Iran in the 70s. I'm assuming The Stand will be next after that.

It's unclear if Affleck will also star in The Stand, but I imagine he'd be very attracted to role of Stu Redman. I hope that he actually sits this one out; while I like Affleck as an actor a project of this scope seems to demand more of his attention as a director, and a role like Stu or Nick Andros is simply too big. Maybe Affleck could make a nice cameo. Actually I think Matt Damon would be a great Stu -just my two cents.