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Stephen King adaptations are popular with audiences all over the world, so it makes sense that Hollywood is attempting to adapt what many consider to be his greatest work, The Stand .
Warner Bros made a move to secure director David Yates and screenwriter Steve Kloves to the project, as the dynamic duo were responsible for multiple films in the Harry Potter franchise.
But Yates passed on the project, and has now explained why.
"I was offered The Stand . I love The Stand , I read it when I was a kid, it was one of my favorite books when I was growing up, I love Stephen King, I think he's a remarkable writer," Yates said. "And coming out of Potter , you wanna work with an author who has the same reach as a Jo Rowling, and frankly Stephen King does.”
“My issues though were about the adaptation. I wanted to work with Steve Kloves, Steve Kloves wanted to work with me, we were both committed to doing it, but in that time it took to let go of Potter and to think about how we would tackle the adaptation, we both decided that it wasn't for us, so we left it. We sort of withdrew basically."
Yates then went onto suggest that that The Stand isn’t the kind of tentpole picture usually sought by Warner Bros.
"What I love about King's work and what I love about The Stand is the fact that Stephen King really puts you into these people's lives, and you see the world from a very intimate human level, which normally is something I love.
"But we felt this pressure to make these super tentpole movies with this material, and the things that you get in Potter - which are these extraordinary episodes of action - they didn't exist in the material, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to deliver the kind of movie that ultimately the studio was hoping to get from this material. “
“I could see making a miniseries from it, a really interesting, intricate, layered, enjoyable long-burn of a miniseries, I could see that, but what was missing for me were the big movie moments in the material, the big set pieces."
But don't worry King fans, Ben Affleck has been handed the job of directing The Stand , and he'll get to it after he completes work on dark comedy Argo .
