A few months ago, we heard that Ben Affleck, who wasn’t nominated for Best Director during this morning Oscar nominations announcements, would direct an adaptation of Dennis Lehane‘s 1920s Boston crime drama Live by Night.
During a recent interview on MTV Affleck confirmed that he’s currently working on the screenplay and that Live By Night is something he’s pushing to be his next film. He literally said:
Basically I’m doing a movie called Live by Night and I’m trying to meet this schedule in order to do it, in order to meet the back end so that I can have it released at the right time, and I just hadn’t gotten enough writing done and it became clear that if I took that job (acting in Focus) and was in Buenos Aires for three months, I was gonna miss the deadline. I had to choose between getting the movie out when I want to or doing this one, so reluctantly I chose the [former]. But I love those guys, I love Kristen, I was really excited to work with her, I think the movie’s gonna be fabulous, and I’m sure they’ll find a great guy for it.
Affleck was previously in talks to star in Focus, a romantic conman movie from Glenn Ficarra and John Requa with Kristen Stewart as the female lead.
Affleck’s directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, is also adapted from the Boston novelist’s book and Live by Night feels like a good vehicle for encouraging further growth in Affleck’s career.
I wouldn’t be surprised either if he was aiming to start filming later this year for a fall 2014 release.
