A few weeks ago, fantasy fans were surprised by the news that the Harry Potter team of director David Yates and screenwriter Steve Kloves were going to tackle Stephen King’s The Stand as their next project. They were more surprised a little later when it was announced that Ben Affleck was taking both roles on the Warner Bros. film.

Promoting the DVD release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II, David Yates told Collider that he had decided against the project because the book lacked “the extraordinary episodes of action” that were in the Potter novels. “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,” he explained. “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.”

Yates emphasised that he and Kloves “were both committed to doing it” but the adaptation problems were the sole reason for stepping away. “Coming out of Potter, you wanna work with an author who has the same reach as a Jo Rowling, and frankly Stephen King does,” he noted.

The full interview, which includes Yates’ plans for a biopic of gangster Al Capone and his thoughts on the conversion of the Potter films into 3D can be read here.

Update: According to Variety, Yates is now working on a big screen reboot of Doctor Who.