David Yates reveals why he passed on Stephen King’s The Stand

David Yates, the man who brought us the last four entries in the phenomenal Harry Potter franchise has revealed why he passed on the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand.

Warner Bros, were looking to lock director David Yates and screenwriter Steve Kloves but Yates explained "I was offered The Stand. I love The Stand, I read it when I was a kid, it was one of my favorite books when I was growing up, I love Stephen King, I think he's a remarkable writer," Yates said. "And coming out of Potter, you wanna work with an author who has the same reach as a Jo Rowling, and frankly Stephen King does.

My issues though were about the adaptation. I wanted to work with Steve Kloves, Steve Kloves wanted to work with me, we were both committed to doing it, but in that time it took to let go of Potter and to think about how we would tackle the adaptation, we both decided that it wasn't for us, so we left it. We sort of withdrew basically."

Yates went onto suggest that The Stand is not the usual tentpole film that Warner Bros seek adding "What I love about King's work and what I love about The Stand is the fact that Stephen King really puts you into these people's lives, and you see the world from a very intimate human level, which normally is something I love.

But we felt this pressure to make these super tentpole movies with this material, and the things that you get in Potter - which are these extraordinary episodes of action - they didn't exist in the material, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to deliver the kind of movie that ultimately the studio was hoping to get from this material.

I could see making a miniseries from it, a really interesting, intricate, layered, enjoyable long-burn of a miniseries, I could see that, but what was missing for me were the big movie moments in the material, the big set pieces."

The Stand has found a director in the shape of Ben Affleck who is due to start on the King masterpiece after he completes dark comedy Argo.

As for Yates, he revealed that he would be bringing BBC favourite Doctor Who to the big screen with BBC Worldwide's Jane Tranter.