Captain Phillips director Paul Greengrass is being lined up to take over the film adaptation of Stephen King's novel The Stand, according to reports.

According to Badass Digest, Warner Bros want Greengrass, who has also directed films including The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum and Green Zone, to take over the long-troubled project after director Scott Cooper quit the film earlier this month. Argo filmmaker Ben Affleck had previously been pencilled in to direct, but decided to leave in August of this year so he would be free to play Batman in the sequel to Man Of Steel instead.

King's novel The Stand tells of a post-apocalyptic world where a superflu pandemic has wiped out 99% of the population. The 823-page tome has previously been made into a TV mini-series in 1994, starring Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald and Rob Lowe.

Captain Phillips, which stars Tom Hanks in the titular role and tells the true story of how a US merchant mariner was taken hostage by Somali pirates in 2009, was released in October of this year. Greengrass is also reportedly working on a documentary about iconic Spanish football team FC Barcelona which is expected to be released in 2014.