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A year ago Ben Affleck was hired to direct a big screen adaptation of Stephen King's epic good vs. evil story, The Stand. Apparently he's having a hard time adapting the material. If you've ever read the book, then you know how big this story is, and it doesn't seem like the easiest book to adapt.
The book tells the story of good vs. evil after a virus wipes out most of the American population. While it features dozens of characters and overlapping story lines running over many years, the struggle boils down to a group of survivors fighting the Antichrist-like Randall Flagg.
In a recently interview with GQ, Affleck had this to say...
Right now we’re having a very hard time. But I like the idea — it’s like ‘The Lord of the Rings’ in America. And it’s about how we would reinvent ourselves as a society. If we started all over again, what would we do?
I thought Affleck would be a solid director for the project, so I hope he's able to crack the story with his screenwriter, David Kajganich, and pull off his Lord of the Rings in America. Hopefully he doesn't get so frustrated with the project that he walks away from it.
The novel was first published in 1978 and was adapted as a made-for-TV mini-series in 1994 starring Gary Sinise and Molly Ringwald. I thought the TV series was pretty good. It's not mind blowing, but they did a decent job adapting it for an early 90s TV series.
Affleck is also working on his next film project, which is an adaptation of the Dennis Lehane novel Live By Night.
