With Warner Bros. and The Fault In Our Stars director Josh Boone going full speed to develop a cinematic take on Stephen King’s sprawling post-apocalyptic story The Stand, the studio’s thoughts are clearly starting to turn to casting. Boone already has Stars**’ Nat Wolff aboard, but for the villain of the piece, Warners is trying to land Matthew McConaughey.
According to Deadline, it’s very early days and no formal discussions have taken place, but the studio wants McConaughey to play antichrist-like figure Randal Flagg, who haunts the survivors of a man-made plague that collapses civilization. We can certainly see McConaughey’s natural intensity working for the character, though with an Oscar under his belt, he has a lot more negotiating power these days and may simply decide it’s not for him.
Also jumping up and down like an eager puppy to score his attention is Syriana’s Stephen Gaghan, who has a project called Gold in development. Written by Patrick Massett and John Zinman, and drawn from the true account of a mining company scandal involving tonnes of the glittering stuff, Gaghan is trying to put the film together and scoring McConaughey to star would certainly help matters.
As of right now, McConaughey is at work on Gus Van Sant’s Sea Of Trees and is circling CIA agent drama The Company Man. He’ll next be seen in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, which arrives here on November 7.