“Fault In Our Stars” helmer in talks to direct Stephen King’s “The Stand”

PanARMENIAN.Net - Josh Boone is in early talks to direct The Stand, the adaptation of Stephen King’s epic novel being made by Warner Bros. and CBS Films, The Hollywood Report said.

The companies previously had Scott Cooper on board to direct (as well as write) but he left the project in November over creative issues. Before that, Ben Affleck and David Yates were attached as directors.

Jimmy Miller and Roy Lee are producing the project.

Boone isn’t a name yet but may have awareness among a surprising demo: teens. The writer-director is in post on The Fault In Our Stars, Fox 2000's adaptation of the mega-popular YA novel by John Green. The movie will be released June 6.

Boone already has a King connection dating back to when he was 12 and King's books were banned in his household. The writer-director has previously recounted how he was forced to rip covers off of Christian books and tape them to King books just so he could slyly read them. The Stand however, faced a cruel fate: His mom found it under his bed and subsequently burned it in the fireplace.

Boone, still 12, wrote a moving letter to the author to which he responded by sending the boy a box filled with books, with a letter written in the front covers of the tomes. The act impressed his parents, who then lifted the ban.

It started a lifelong relationship with King, who even played himself in Boone's feature debut, 2012's Stuck in Love, and recently gave Boone permission to adapt Lisey's Story.

The Stand is a story of good versus evil after a virus wipes out most of the American population. It features dozens of characters (including such memorable ones as the Trashcan Man and Mother Abigail) and overlapping storylines running over many years as it tells of a group of survivors fighting the Antichrist-like Randall Flagg.