Between new collaborations with David Fincher and Zack Snyder, one may forget, even just a year after Argo, that Ben Affleck still has the whole directorial reinvention going in his favor. While Live By Night has been pushed back for this return to onscreen work, things are still happening on that front of his career: coming up soon, according to Deadline, is an untitled thriller centered on African mercenaries tasked with taking down the warlord for whom numerous atrocities can be blamed. The Town, where the town is Mochudi.
But because this is ostensibly a “prestige picture,” some good old revenge just isn’t quite enough. While Will Staples‘ “big-scale” screenplay has action movie elements, we should also expect “an examination of the moral ambiguities of how philanthropy and foreign assistance veers into modern day neocolonialism,” peppered with further concerns regarding this international action and how, you’ll notice, it tends to go a bit wrong. The Argo comparisons thus become a bit troubling: any and all political material in that film was not only misguided, but jingoistic in the worst, most unaware manner. Will the co-writer behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 have wise, pertinent things to say about these issues?
Pearl Street Films are to produce the title, which — what with his crowded schedule — we shouldn’t expect to see for a few more years. The cowl calls.
Does this next project sound like a fine choice for Affleck? What are some first impressions?