Ben Affleck Out, Scott Cooper In to Direct 'The Stand'; Also Drops 'Tell No One'

One of the many questions that emerged with Warner Bros. tapping Ben Affleck to play Bruce Wayne in their Superman vs. Batman flick, was the status of his other projects with the studio. While his adaptation of Dennis Lehane's Live By Night seems to be intact, he was also set to bring Stephen King's The Stand to the big screen. It turns out that Affleck's cape crusading days are going to be eating up most of his time, and he's been forced to hand The Stand over to somebody else.

Scott Cooper, director of Crazy Heart and the upcoming Out of the Furance, has stepped in for

Affleck in helming the King adaptation. This has always been a priority project for the studio, so it's no surprise that they decided on another A-list director for the job. The only real surprise is that they've waited this long to make it happen, giving Affleck enough space to work on his other projects first. The original novel was published in 1978, eventually turned into a TV miniseries in 1994, and tells a sprawling tale of the survivors of a biological disaster that decimated humanity. The survivors, while trying to establish a new civilization, become embroiled in a battle of good vs. evil.

The challenge for Cooper will be in condensing what is a mammoth story that barely fit into a miniseries into single narrative feature. Is there any way Warner Bros. doesn't break this up into a franchise? Cooper's Out of the Furnace stars Christian Bale and will hit theaters on December 6th.

Affleck was also developing an adaptation of Harlan Coben's thriller Tell No One (also an incredible film by Guillaume Canet), and he's also exited that project according to The Wrap. No details are given as to why, but we can probably assume scheduling is a major part of it. Plus one of the film's producers, Kathleen Kennedy, has a little Star Wars project that will be keeping her busy. Those who hate seeing remakes of well-made foreign films are probably cheering right now. Count me amongst their number. [Deadline]