Ben Affleck to direct The Stand?

Strong Bad

Personally I hope this is true. Say what you want about his acting, but after Gone Baby Gone and The Town, I think Ben has the skills to get it done! To do it right though, ya have to split it into atleast two 3 hour movies minimum. Go all out Lord of the Rings style and give it three 3 hour+ movies. The Stand is one helluva book with a ton of detail!

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/51690

Toolfan66

Great Book and I agree about doing it right with three movies.

With that said I have always liked Swan Song better, I have read that book a few times.

I only mention it because they are similar in a sense..

bobman1235

The Stand is one of my favorite books of all time, perhaps my favorite.

But like with most of Stephen King's good books, I don't think it's possible -- certainly not easy -- to make it into a good movie without altering it almost beyond recognition. Most of King's better stories are good because they are psychological, and that... that's probably the hardest thing to do in film. Ben did all right with those movies but I don't think he's up to the task of giving "the Stand" the treatment it deserves.

polkfarmboy

I think Ben will do a great job and I agree with the op

rebuy

Another remake, however the TV version, which is a remake of The Shining was very good.

bobman1235

rebuy wrote: »

Another remake, however the TV version, which is a remake of The Shining was very good.

Buh? The Shining and the Stand are two different stories, you know this right?

The TV remake of the Shining (with Stephen Weber) was terrible, especially compared to Kubrick's movie.

The miniseries version of the Stand was also very ungood (although amazingly it has a 7.2 on IMDb so maybe I'm just overly critical because I love the book so much. Also I'm not an idiot).

dorokusai

I have zero faith in Ben Affleck to do this correctly. Gone Baby Gone was very good due to the performances of the actors, not the directing. The Town was not a good movie and easily forgetable.

drumminman

I thoroughly enjoyed The Town, especially the cat and mouse game between Affleck and the female lead. Thought Jeremy Renner was good too. And the action sequences were well done.

Haven't read The Stand so can't comment on that.

rebuy

bobman1235 wrote: »

Buh? The Shining and the Stand are two different stories, you know this right?

The TV remake of the Shining (with Stephen Weber) was terrible, especially compared to Kubrick's movie.

The miniseries version of the Stand was also very ungood (although amazingly it has a 7.2 on IMDb so maybe I'm just overly critical because I love the book so much. Also I'm not an idiot).

Sorry I did not make myself clear to you in my first post. I did like the remake of The Shinning, while it was not the Masterpiece of the Kubrick version, it was much closer to the book than the Kubrick movie. I also don't think I called anyone an idiot.
What say you?

bobman1235

Lighten up, the idiot thing was a joke because the Stand miniseries was terrible.

miner

Steven King redid the TV version because he did not like what Kubrick did to the movie version. The Stand will be tough to do on the big screen. It did well on TV because it was "free'' to see. I liked the book much better.

avelanchefan

Well Jackson fit Lord of the Rings into three films and succeeded. Don't see why they cant do that with The Stand. Will definitely be a must see.

dorokusai

Jackson....Affleck....hmmmm, I'm calling BS on this bizarre analogy. Really? He made a movie called Gigli, let alone a host of other equally awful movies and you want to give him THAT much street cred? L O L

cnh

I have to agree. Most Steven King movies I've seen...well, let's not go there. The Kubrick film was tops and Stanley did that by throwing the book aside?

The Stand mini-series was plodding and interminable...really tough to watch. Actually, although King is almost a neighbor up here and I've seen him many times at the local airport--usually in sneakers and jeans, I've only read a few things by him--not a particular fan of him as an author but he's certainly very capable at what he does! His is just a genre that does not interest me much.

Ben Affleck? I don't think so... I have, however, a very close friend who's written about 20 scripts and is a visual genius who could probably do a better job. But then again, we all know how Hollywood works...right!

OK, Benicio Del Torro, he'd be good!

I do like King, as a person, he's remained true to his Down East Maine roots and still has his feet on the ground! And...he's older than I am and still married to the same woman!

cnh

bobman1235

avelanchefan wrote: »

Well Jackson fit Lord of the Rings into three films and succeeded. Don't see why they cant do that with The Stand. Will definitely be a must see.

Like Doro said, Affleck ain't no Peter Jackson. And LoTR, while an amazing series of books, is MUCH better suited for movie adaptation, because so much of what happens is visual.



As far as the Shining goes, the Kubrick 'Shining' adaptation is so good because it captures the FEEL of the book, even if it strays from the 'script' set up by the book. When King made that other adaptation, he followed his book much more closely... and the movie suffered. Film and literature are two different mediums, and I just don't think King can always accept that without a LOT of help.