Deadline is reporting that Matt Damon has bowed out of Father Daughter Time, passing over directing duties to Warrior and Jane Got a Gun helmer Gavin O’Connor.
This isn’t the first time that a project has gotten away from Damon, either; prior to Kenneth Lonergan coming on board, the award-winning actor was all but set to make his directorial debut with Manchester By the Sea, ultimately settling for a producing role on the Oscar frontrunner. A stacked schedule was to blame for the switcheroo, and Damon’s busy lineup looks to have been the main perpetrator here as well.
Warner Bros. first snapped up rights to Matthew Aldrich’s spec, Father Daughter Time: A Tale Of Armed Robbery And Eskimo Kisses, back in 2011, and Matt Damon has been attached ever since. That filmmaking debut will have to wait, though, with Gavin O’Connor now officially in the director’s chair. For the uninitiated, Aldrich’s script follows a man and his daughter as they embark on a three-state crime spree. It’s a project that Gavin O’Connor is eagerly anticipating, too, as he told Deadline that he’s always wanted to craft a father-daughter dynamic on the big screen.
“As a subject I’ve always wanted to explore the father-daughter relationship. I was a single dad for many years. And being a good father — a good example to my daughter — was deeply important to me. But as fathers we’re human, flawed, we make mistakes, and maybe we didn’t have good examples growing up — no strong female role models. So a daughter can be like a Martian to us. Yet you’re a part of each other. You will always be a part of them and they will always be a part of you. We form each other. And I wanted to explore that. How do you live inside that? How do you become a great dad to a daughter when no one taught you how?”
Father Daughter Time is now officially moving forward sans Matt Damon. Elsewhere, O’Connor is busy fostering a new take on The Green Hornet, while Damon has Chinese epic The Great Wall looming on the horizon.
