Ben Affleck doesn’t journey behind the lens very often, but when he does, it’s worth standing up and taking notice.
Long before donning the cape and cowl for Warner Bros., Affleck was riding high after the one-two-three punch of Gone Baby Gone, The Town and the Oscar-winning Argo. That’s a reputable body of work that the writer-director-actor will build on with The Batman and crime drama Witness For the Prosecution over the next two-to-three years. By comparison, Ben Affleck’s next directorial effort is much closer to home, and will involve a trip back to the roaring ’20s for a crime saga that involves guns, gangsters and the enigmatic son of a Boston Police Superintendent.
That’s Joe Coughlin, the lead character of Live By Night. Cementing the film’s status as a bona fide passion project, Affleck will take up arms as Coughlin, who packs in life as a Boston lawman to indulge in the criminal underworld of Tampa Bay. Prohibition is rife, though Affleck’s protagonist falls in deep with the sharks after double-crossing the wrong mob boss, setting in motion a journey that promises revenge, romance, and crippling betrayal.
Also on board for Live By Night – itself an adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s acclaimed crime saga – are Elle Fanning, Sienna Miller, Chris Messina, Chris Cooper, Titus Welliver, Scott Eastwood, and Brendan Gleeson as Thomas Coughlin, Joe’s father who tries his utmost to steer his estranged son toward the right moral path.
Warner Bros. has nailed down plans to roll out Live By Night via limited release on December 25 – a crowded corridor that will also host Gold, Fences and NASA pic Hidden Figures – before Ben Affleck’s bootlegging drama expands nationwide on January 13, 2017.
