Filming has all but wrapped up on the set of Ben Affleck’s period crime caper Live By Night, but that hasn’t stopped the Dawn of Justice star from sharing an image from production.
Less of a teaser for his own film and more a nod to The Hateful Eight cinematographer Robert Richardson, who happens to be up for an Oscar for his work on Tarantino’s brutal Western, Affleck took to Twitter to post the still image of the pair taking a break during filming back in the fall. Since then, we’ve glimpsed additional set photos that place Affleck and co-star Zoe Saldana in the Roaring ’20s.
Based on Dennis Lehane’s (Shutter Island, Mystic River) Prohibition-era crime epic, Live By Night places Affleck’s in the shoes of Joe Coughlin, a Boston renegade who flies in the face of his proud family name by indulging in petty crime. What starts as seedy pickpocketing quickly spawns a bona fide criminal, and it doesn’t take long for our anti-hero to catch the attention of the city’s mobsters.
Set during a time of grand excess, Affleck’s Joe will encounter “loyal friends and callous enemies, tough rumrunners and sultry femmes fatales, Bible-quoting evangelists and cruel Klansmen, all battling for survival and their piece of the American dream.” Fitting into that crime-ridden ensemble are Elle Fanning, Sienna Miller, Chris Messina, Chris Cooper, Scott Eastwood, and Brendan Gleeson.
Given that Affleck pushed production to work with David Fincher on Gone Girl, before tackling Zack Snyder’s Herculean Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, Live By Night, the actor’s first directorial effort since his Oscar success with Argo, is finally on course to release on December 31, 2017.
