The Warner Beros. adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand has hit another stumbling block, with TheWrap reporting that writer/director Scott Cooper has left the project for unrevealed reasons.

The news comes as something of a surprise, considering that Cooper (Crazy Heart, Out of the Furnace) only recently spoke with MTV about his "searingly realistic" take on the novel, and in the process may have dropped a clue as to why he and the studio might part ways.

“There’s a reason that film hasn’t been made, because it’s the themes and the scope and the size," he said, "and of course my approach -- much like with Out of the Furnace -- is searingly realistic, and that can be a very expensive endeavor but one that perhaps maybe doesn’t marry with how a movie like that should be shot, just because of the sheer expense."

King's epic novel features several individual tales set in a post-apocalyptic world devastated by a virus. Cooper is the third helmer to bail on the project preceded by Harry Potter director David Yates and Ben Affleck.