Update 11/21/13: The Wrap is reporting that Scott Cooper is now off of The Stand, citing the always popular "creative differences" as the cause, though it's worth pointing out that THR says the main problem was Cooper wanted to make an R-rated film and the studio did not. Warner Bros. does not have an immediate replacement for him, so don't expect this to be hitting the big screen anytime soon.

Previous Update 8/23/13: Considering the below news is about two years old, and given last night's surprise revelation that Ben Affleck is playing Batman, it should come as no surprise that Affleck is no longer attached to direct an adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand. THR is reporting that his shoes will, contracts pending, be filled by Scott Cooper, the director of Crazy Heart and the much-buzzed Out of the Furnace (starring ex-Batman Christian Bale and Ben's brother, Casey Affleck).

Back in August it was revealed that the Harry Potter writer-director duo of Steve Kloves and David Yates were in negotiations to take on The Stand, Stephen King's greatest apocalypse novel, for Warner Bros. Everything seemed like it was on track, there was already talk of it being a multi-film adaptation of the King's sprawling tale of the special survivors of a viral pandemic. Kloves/Yates were hot off of Deathly Hallows Part 2 at the time, so it made since that the WB would lock them down for one of its most viable properties... And then something changed.

What exactly that change was in unclear, but Deadline is suddenly reporting that Warner Bros. has chosen Ben Affleck to direct The Stand.

Will he be directing from Kloves' script? Is it still going to be a mult-film project? Will Yates produce? There's no comment on the matter, all Deadline says is that Affleck has developed a great relationship with the studio and they've chosen him for the helm. We'll update this space if new details emerge, but in the mean time we're going to considering this an interesting but nebulous bit of news.

We're excited to hear that Affleck is gaining more and more clout as a director, but he's never taken on anything close to the scale of The Stand, so we wouldn't be surprised if in another two months we're writing up a similar story about a new director suddenly taking on the project.

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