‘The Stand’ Replacing Ben Affleck With ‘Crazy Heart’ Director

Since we all know Ben Affleck is a little too busy with his upcoming film 'Live By Night' and, of course, playing Batman, the new adaptation of Stephen King's classic horror-fantasy novel 'The Stand' has been in need of a director. After Affleck left the film behind a while ago, the project may have finally found a replacement: Scott Cooper, the helmer behind 'Crazy Heart.'

THR reports that Cooper, who's also directing the upcoming revenge-thriller 'Out of the Furnace,' is currently in talks with Warner Bros. and CBS Films to helm the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King's 'The Stand,' a novel King originally released in 1978. King re-released the novel in an expanded "Complete and Uncut Edition" in 1990, and after a failed attempt at a film adaptation at Warner Bros. in the '80s, an eight-hour miniseries based on the novel (and a teleplay from King himself) debuted on ABC in 1994.

Warner Bros. originally secured 'Argo' director and star Ben Affleck to direct the latest adaptation, but due to scheduling conflicts he had to drop out, and the search continued for a director for the project. Enter Cooper, who has worked with names like Jeff Bridges, Casey Affleck and Christian Bale, and knows a little something about crafting gritty drama.

The official synopsis for the original novel:

One man escapes from a biological weapon facility after an accident, carrying with him the deadly virus known as Captain Tripps, a rapidly mutating flu that - in the ensuing weeks - wipes out most of the world's population. In the aftermath, survivors choose between following an elderly black woman to Boulder or the dark man, Randall Flagg, who has set up his command post in Las Vegas. The two factions prepare for a confrontation between the forces of good and evil.