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Matthew McConaughey Up for Stephen King's 'The Stand' and 'Gold'

by Ethan Anderton
August 25, 2014
Source: Deadline

Following a stellar Oscar-winning performance last year in Dallas Buyers Club and a turn on television in "True Detective" that could end up with him taking home a trophy at the Emmy awards tonight on NBC, Matthew McConaughey is wanted and desired for a couple developing projects. First up, Deadline reports Warner Bros. is very interested in landing the actor for a pivotal role in Josh Boone's adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand. It would be a particularly juicy role as Randall Flagg, the film's villain described as the personification of evil, a demonic figure wreaking havoc after a plague has killed most of humanity.

As of now, this isn't a done deal, but the studio is very interested in getting McConaughey on board. It's not clear if there have been talks with the actor yet, or if they're just courting him for the role. Seeing what McConaughey can do as a gruff hero in "True Detective," it would be incredible to see him take on a villain role like this. As of now, Boone's The Fault in Our Stars and Stuck in Love star Nat Wolff is the only actor revealed to be on board, as the director's good luck charm of sorts, but hopefully we'll hear more soon.

Secondly, former Michael Mann project Gold is also looking to land McConaughey for the lead role in the story of a rough-around-the-edges prospector who stumbles onto one of the largest gold mines in the world in the Indonesian jungle. The scandal that followed involved the Bre-X Mineral Corporation inflating the amount of gold in the mine and the financial madness that followed. The original script comes from Patrick Massett and John Zinman (co-executive producers of "Friday Night Lights" and "The Chicago Code"), who first wrote the spec script as a feature writing sample.

Way back in 2011, the script was developed by Paul Haggis as his own project to direct, but ended up stepping away for other projects, allowing Michael Mann to take over. But the Heat director fell away in the summer of 2013 and director Spike Lee was circling the film at the time. Now it's Traffic writer and Syriana director Stephen Gaghan who may be taking a crack at directing the film for Black Bear Pictures. This too just seems to be early buzz on the film, and there aren't any deals in place just yet. McConaughey can pretty much do whatever he wants right now, so we'll see what happens. Thoughts?

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