Will Paul Greengrass Take The Stand For Warner Bros.?

The battle to bring a feature film adaptation of The Stand to theaters continues to rage over at Warner Bros., and the studio recently made it known that they have a director in mind to helm the post-apocalyptic horror-fantasy, based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. According to Badass Digest, Paul Greengrass, of the Bourne trilogy and this year’s Captain Phillips, is the studio’s first pick to direct the film.

Greengrass is certainly an unconventional choice for such an ambitious, fantastical project – the director is best known for depicting real-life events with a distinctive shaky-cam style. However, he certainly knows how to get audiences’ pulses pounding, so Warner Bros. tapping him to bring searing tension and suspense to The Stand is not an idea without merit.

The magical aspects of King’s novel would certainly constitute a change of pace for Greengrass, though perhaps that would appeal to the director right now. He already appears to be moving away from his typical fact-based thrillers with a football documentary called Barça in the works.

Of course, as the director has not yet responded to being placed atop Warner Bros.’ wish-list, nothing is official. And even if Greengrass did join the project, there’s no guarantee that he’d stay. The Stand has cycled through multiple directors already.

The project first entered development back in 2011, with Harry Potter director David Yates and his screenwriter Steve Kloves attached. However, both eventually departed The Stand, with Yates opining that King’s novel would work better as a miniseries than as a film. Ben Affleck took the wheel later that year and began planning out the film, only to depart this past August after landing the role of Batman in Zack Snyder’s Batman vs. Superman. Out of the Furnace director Scott Cooper was recently attached to direct, but he backed out of the project not too long ago over “creative differences” with Warner Bros.

Other directors who made Warner Bros.’ latest shortlist for the film were Cary Fukunaga (HBO’s upcoming True Detective), Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners) and Daniel Espinosa (Safe House). 

More news will certainly be emerging about Warner Bros.’ directorial choice for The Stand in the near future, but what do you think of Greengrass helming the film? Would he be a good choice, or should Warner Bros. be searching for a more fantasy-oriented filmmaker? Sound off in the comments section!