After indulging in the superhero scene for Batman V Superman – not to mention that minor role in Suicide Squad – Ben Affleck has regained his directing appetite. Long before taking the reins on Warner’s solo Batman movie, Affleck will be headed to the Prohibition era for crime caper and passion project Live By Night. Though Deadline brings word today that the writer-director has hatched a new project over at 20th Century Fox.
It’s called Witness for the Prosecution, a new spin on the Agatha Christie short story that first graced screens back in ’57. Christopher Keyser is the scribe tasked with adapting the drama, while Ben Affleck will produce.
For the uninitiated, Witness for the Prosecution centers on a lawyer who “represents a man accused of murdering a wealthy widow with whom she became so infatuated that she left him her estate. The suspect’s wife, while initially unable to testify against her husband, is called as a witness for the prosecution because she was married to another man when she wed the defendant. She fingers him for the murder, to clear her conscience. Twists and turns unfold from there, as one would expect in an Agatha Christie whodunit.”
Before donning the cape and cowl for Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Ben Affleck will headline Gavin O’Connor’s upcoming thriller as The Accountant on October 14, before changing gears for Live By Night in December – if Elle Fanning is to be believed, that is.
Witness for the Prosecution is currently without a release window, though we’ll keep you posted on this one as it nears a production start.
