It was announced over the summer that the screenwriter and the director of several Harry Potter films, Steve Kloves and Yates, would adapt King’s post-apocalyptic doorstop across three sweeping films. However, Yates lacks the hunk status so the intent is to now replace him with the guy from Gigli. Affleck, who is currently directing the hostage drama Argo, has two films under his belt as of this moment. Argo will make it three. He seems like a strange pick for a genre project like this. First of all, it’s massive. Secondly, it doesn’t take place in Boston. Can he find as much success with the Maine accent? (Deadline)

This storyline is considered a lot more grim and adult than what Yates dealt with in Harry Potter. There are corpses lining the streets, gratuitous acts of violence, and deer running rampant in supermarkets. Not to mention the pressure to get it right. If he thought Potter fans were rabid, wait until he comes up short in the eyes of King’s fanbase. If he screws up, he’ll never be able to set foot in Maine again. (HitFix)

King has already been through the process of adapting The Stand for the 1994 television miniseries. With that experience under his belt, here he lists ten things he knows about the remake. He’s surprisingly mute about Pet Semetary however.

1. No one will be able to top Gary Sinise, who played Stu Redman in the original ABC miniseries. He was perfect. When he says “You don’t know nothing” to the soldiers who are putting him under mandatory quarantine, you believe his contempt completely. My runner-up pick would be Jake Gyllenhaal.

2. I didn’t know anything about the remake until I read about it on the Internet.

3. You absolutely can’t make it as a two-hour movie. If it was a trilogy of films … maybe.

4. Molly Ringwald won’t be playing Fran Goldsmith this time.

5. Rutger Hauer is a little too old to play the Walkin’ Dude, and that’s too bad.

6. People who’ve seen Kubrick’s The Shining dislike the miniseries I wrote (and my amigo Mick Garris directed) even if they haven’t seen it. That’s always annoyed me. But the wheel of karma turns! This time people will probably say, “The miniseries was lots better.” BUT…

7. …historically speaking, movie studios blow the budget on things like this, so maybe it’ll be fun to look at. The dough certainly isn’t going to me, although if it is a trilogy, and if it makes a lot of money, I might be able to buy a chicken dinner at Popeye’s. Great slaw!

8. Molly Ringwald will probably not play the Trashcan Man, either, but Billy Bob Thornton would be cool. Billy Bob’s always cool.

9. They need to write in a lot of heavy-metal for the soundtrack.

10. M-O-O-N, that spells “you probably won’t see this anytime soon.” And when you do, Woody Allen won’t be directing it. Or Molly Ringwald.

Great. There goes all my hopes of seeing Woody Allen directing. >:(   (EW)

The original book is 823 pages long, and the Uncut version is 4,586,934 pages long. After 20 years, movie executives have finished reading the Uncut version and are deciding whether to make it one big movie or a Lord Of The Rings-esque series of films. Fun fact: did you know Stephen King was influenced by LOTR when writing The Stand? Another fun fact: it will be interesting to see how they film the thing where the guy gets raped with the butt of a gun.

Currently, no director or writers are attached. (Hollywood Reporter)