Harry Potter Director David Yates Passed On Adapting Stephen King's The Stand For A Good Reason

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David Yates has been at the helm of every film in the Wizarding World franchise since 2007's "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." In a way, though, he's an odd choice for the whimsical fantasy property, as Yates doesn't bring a lot of visual variety to his movies. Although he works with many different cinematographers, his films all tend to have a washed-out, colorless look to them. He also doesn't like to photograph the sky (unless it's completely filled with haze or thick cloud cover) and prefers to rid his movies of all warm, natural light. That said, his approach makes a bit more sense when you remember that Yates has directed many of the darkest and, in some cases, best received "Harry Potter" movies to date.

Of course, Yates hasn't worked exclusively on Wizarding World movies. After directing a bizarre big-budget Tarzan film titled "The Legend of Tarzan" in 2016, Yates went on to helm "Pain Hustlers," the 2023 Netflix crime thriller flick starring Emily Blunt and Chris Evans that almost no one remembers. Basically, despite having directed some of the highest-grossing movies of all time, Yates still feels like a filmmaker in search of an identity — or, at least, a new project that he can associate himself with. 

And it seems that, at one point, Yates was poised to take on such a project. Back in 2011, Hitfix revealed that Yates was set to direct a multi-film adaptation of Stephen King's enormous apocalyptic novel "The Stand." Yates, however, turned it down — telling Collider that same year that he simply wasn't a good match for the material — and the venture ultimately gave rise to a 2020 TV miniseries version of King's original story instead.

ABC

Stephen King's "The Stand" was initially published in 1978 but expanded greatly in 1990 and republished as a 1,152-page epic. It tells the story of a flu-like plague that unexpectedly wipes out 99.4% of the world's population in a month. In the aftermath, the planet's scant survivors, seemingly immune, find themselves being drawn to one of two supernatural cult leaders. The "good" people begin following the teachings of the 108-year-old Mother Abigail, while the "bad" people follow the demonic, super-powered Randall Flagg, with the very soul of humanity at stake.

As David Yates explained to Collider: 

"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. And coming out of 'Potter,' you want to 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."

Steve Kloves wrote all of the "Harry Potter" films save for "Order of the Phoenix," co-wrote one of the "Fantastic Beasts" movies, and even contributed to the superhero tentpole "The Amazing Spider-Man," so he knows his way around a Hollywood blockbuster. But "The Stand," Kloves and Yates felt, wasn't quite "blockbuster" enough.

CBS

Specifically, both David Yates and Steve Kloves knew that "The Stand," although a massive drama with dozens of characters, wouldn't give rise to the type of whiz-bang blockbuster that studios seem to long for. Yates even told Collider that he loves "The Stand" because of the way that Stephen King pulls readers into the heads of all those characters. It's an end-of-the-world drama seen from an intimate human level. 

Nevertheless, Yates admitted:

"[W]e 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." 

So, he put the film aside. 

Incidentally, "The Stand" had already been adapted into an ABC miniseries in 1994, with a cast featuring Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe, and many others. Then, as mentioned earlier, the proposed multi-part film adaptation eventually morphed to 2020's "The Stand," a miniseries starring the likes of James Marsden, Alexander Skarsgård, and Whoopi Goldberg. So, perhaps it was a good thing that Yates passed on "The Stand." The material isn't well-suited to film and definitely doesn't have a lot of action set pieces. The 2020 miniseries was a better idea, and it even allowed Stephen King to fix an element of the story that he always hated.