Director Scott Cooper has replaced Ben Affleck on The Stand, a Stephen King adaptation that Affleck and Warner Bros. have been working on for some time. Now that Affleck’s schedule is packed, the Argo director has left the project.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cooper, the writer/director of Crazy Heart, is in talks to board the project, which is a Warner Bros./CBS Films co-production. The studios need to get moving soon since the clock on the film rights is expiring. Jimmy Miller and Roy Lee are producing.
The Stand has plenty of roles for major stars, with over a dozen characters. The post-apocalyptic novel was written back in 1978, but King made some edits for a 1990 re-issue and the book became a cult hit.
As The Huffington Post notes, Affleck had been attached to the project since October 2011. But projects like Argo, David Fincher’s Gone Girl and his next directing job, Live By Night have gotten in the way. He’s also Batman now, so it makes sense for Warner to finally start looking elsewhere for someone to helm The Stand.
Cooper is best known for directing Jeff Bridges to an Oscar win in 2009’s Crazy Heart. His next film is Out of the Furnace with Christian Bale. It opens on Dec. 6.
image: Amazon