Ben Affleck is hard at work finishing his next directorial effort, Argo, so that it will be ready for its September 14th release date, but that doesn't mean that he's not thinking towards the future as well. As first reported last October, Affleck has been signed by Warner Bros. to direct one of Stephen King's most popular works: The Stand. Adapted as a mini-series back in the mid-90s with Gary Sinise and Molly Ringwald, the book has never been made into a feature film, but is now in development and is moving right along. How do I know that? Because they've just hired a new writer.

Vulture has learned that David Kajganich has been brought on board by Warner Bros. to pen the new adaptation of The Stand. While Kajganich's resume is fairly limited - his previous work includes 2009's Blood Creek with Henry Cavill and Oliver Hirschbiegel's Body Snatchers remake The Invasion - the studio is high on the writer because he recently wrote a version of Stephen King's IT that they really liked. Both projects are being produced by Roy Lee and Doug Davison, which further explains the connection. The book tells the story of a group of people trying to survive after a chemically weaponized super-flu has devastated the human population.

Should everything go according to plan, this will easily be Affleck's biggest directing project to date and I am fascinated to see how it turns out. He's proven himself more than competent twice now, with both Gone Baby Gone and The Town, and Argo has brought together one of the best casts of 2012, including Affleck himself, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin, Kyle Chandler and many more. Cross your fingers, people!