According to a brief report by Deadline , Ben Affleck is the top choice to direct the movie adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand .
Harry Potter stalwart David Yates was once linked to the job, but it would appear that he has moved on.
Deadline reckons that Warner Bros are extremely keen on Affleck, who’s currently working on politically accented period-piece Argo for the studio.
Affleck hasn’t actually accepted the job yet, but the offer alone indicates his growing stature as a director.
His first two movies as a director ( Gone Baby Gone , The Town ) were Boston-set crime dramas, but he’s keen to avoid typecasting, with Argo and now possibly The Stand : an epic-scale horror about a biological weapon that decimates the world’s population.
The novel was previously adapted into a TV miniseries, broadcast in 1994.
If Affleck signs on, we’d also expect him to earmark a role for himself.