Ever since I can remember, I’ve been a fan of Stephen King. From CARRIE to IT to BAG OF BONES and BLACK HOUSE, his books have entertained me for years—as well as the movies made from those books. GRAVEYARD SHIFT, MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, THE SHINING, and SILVER BULLET (among many, many others) are some of my favorite. One of his most epic books of all time, THE STAND, was made back in the ‘90s as a made-for-TV mini-series from seasoned King director Mick Garris, and while some people hate to admit, I’ll say it right here: that movie sucked balls. The story is not only too epic for TV, but also too crazy and insane to get past the censors, let alone the budgetary concerns, and so on and so forth. Lately there have been talks of bringing THE STAND to the big screen via Warner Bros., and the name that’s been dropped to bring it there is…. Ben Affleck (read that story HERE)!
If you would have suggested Ben f*cking Affleck to direct THE STAND 5 years ago, I would have laughed in your stupid ass face and told you to go flock yourself. But since 2007, the guy has shown over and over again that he’s actually a pretty f*ckin’ solid director. And if anything, what THE STAND needs to make it work on the big screen is a solid director. No offense to Garris, the guy knows what he’s doing in terms of small-screen horror, but something as epic as THE STAND needs to be taken on by someone that’s commercial enough to market to the masses, and talented enough to make it an entertaining ride. And Affleck, at least from what we’ve seen from his first two movies, GONE BABY GONE and THE TOWN, has what it takes to direct an epic flick of a world apocalypse and good vs. evil.
The argument has been that THE STAND is too long to wrap up into one movie—which is absolutely true. But these days, a movie can be split up into two parts and get away with it. Just look at HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS and the upcoming BREAKING DAWN: two books made into big-screen movies that were too long, too epic, or too blockbuster-enducing that they decided to break it up into two parts. And not only are they doing it, but people are receptive to the idea of a PART 1 and PART 2, and if each part is two and a half hours, well… you have yourself a five hour movie and that may just work out for THE STAND.
Then there’s the whole marketing angle that I brought up earlier. Who better to have regular folk who wouldn’t be caught dead seeing a Stephen King flick (let alone a 2-part epic) than Ben Affleck? People love the ‘fleck, it’s a name people know and recognize, and a name that can be easily marketed to the masses, making Affleck a great business choice for the job. Not only that, but imagine the big names he’d be able to get to star in this flick. His first two movies have stared some of Hollywood’s biggest hitters, including Morgan Freeman, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, Casey Affleck, and Jeremy Renner to name a few. Imagine if just those people came back for a take on THE STAND? Hells yeah, I’d be there in a heartbeat, and who knows… maybe there’d even be some Oscar buzz around the flick. Can you imagine, a big screen version of THE STAND being nominated for an Academy Award? Holy shitballs, that’d be epic!
The other name that has been tossed around for the job of directing THE STAND has been HARRY POTTER alumni David Yates, and while his track record is solid (essentially the last four HARRY POTTER movies including the final flick split in two parts), who the f*ck knows who David Yates is? Nobody. And while it’s harder to have directors as household names, there are a gaggle of directors out there who fall into that category, and David Yates ain’t one of them. Maybe this would make his career, maybe it’d be swept under the carper. Who the f*ck knows? I don’t, but do know that Ben Affleck is a household name and a director who knows what he’s doing to make a solid film with a solid story.
Maybe it’s the booze talking, but Warner Bros. would be wise to hire Ben Affleck to bring Stephen King’s THE STAND to the big screen in an epic 2-part telling! He has a great track record thus far, is a household name, and damnit, I’d say the guy is up for the job. Plus, he was in PHANTOMS, yo! Of course, this is all to say if Warner decides to take the story to the big screen (again), Affleck should be the one to direct. King’s novel is extremely long, extremely detailed and fleshed out, and even Garris’s mini-series couldn’t pull it all together—and he had a longer runtime! So while it may not be the best idea to try and make THE STAND (split into two parts or not), Ben Affleck as director seems like the dopest choice.