"Saving the earth is great and all, but what I really want to do is direct."
So the last anybody heard, Warner Bros. had tapped Harry Potter director and scribe Dynamic Duo David Yates and Steve Kloves to tackle Stephen King’s epic tale of post-apocalyptic horror The Stand. I approved. Well, never mind all that. Because now it seems that Ben Affleck has been approached to direct. Which makes absolutely no sense.
Look, I like Affleck as a director. Gone Baby Gone was a great movie, and The Town was really good as well. But nothing in either of those indicates that Affleck can handle a big-budget tentpole movie — or three, as the original plan was to make a trilogy out of King’s 1,000+ page doorstop of a novel. The movie needs a director who can handle large setpieces (the book’s infamous Lincoln tunnel scene), sweeping vistas (the Rocky Mountains, Nebraska plains, and Nevada deserts all play a big part in the story), and above all else the horror aspects (the plague that wipes out most of humanity, and Stephen King’s greatest villain, the Walkin’ Dude, Randall Flagg). Yates and Kloves did an outstanding job with the Potter films, especially the Deathly Hallows episodes. Can Affleck bring the same vision to King’s most popular book? M-O-O-N, that spells “I’m skeptical”.
The ink hasn’t dried on the contract, so we’ll see if this actually ends up happening. (coughcoughthedarktowercoughcough). Regardless, I’m sure we’ll get something a bit better than this:
Molly Ringwald. (shudders)
About Jason Avant
