Ben Affleck’s plans before he dons Batman’s cape
With the news heard ‘round the world that the Oscar-winning Ben Affleck will fill the boots of Christian Bale by playing Batman in a film due in 2015, it’s possible that we’ve all forgotten that Affleck was very effectively nurturing a fruitful post-”Argo” career with projects involving David Fincher and Dennis Lehane.
Affleck is still on board for two films before next summer, when the Batman/Superman sequel to “Man of Steel” should begin filming.
Affleck is scheduled to play a much less heroic character when he starts shooting “Gone Girl” for director Fincher. Starring opposite Rosamund Pike, Affleck will play the duplicitous Nick Dunne, one half of the maritally challenged Dunne couple in the taut thriller based on the novel by Gillian Flynn.
VIDEO: Ben Affleck is Batman in ‘Man of Steel’ sequel
Production on 20th Century Fox’s “Gone Girl” is set to begin in September.
In between scenes on Fincher’s drama, Affleck will likely be working on putting together his fourth directorial outing, “Live by Night,” which he adapted himself from a novel by Dennis Lehane (Lehane’s “Gone, Baby, Gone” was the basis for Affleck’s directorial debut in 2007). In “Live by Night,” a crime drama, Affleck will also star as a cop’s son who becomes a gangster during the Prohibition era of the 1920s.
It’s a project Affleck has spent a lot of time trying to get made. He recently dropped out of an acting gig opposite Kristen Stewart in order to push forward on the film.
Warner Bros. confirmed Friday that the project is still on with a start date set for early 2014. No other cast has yet been announced.
Affleck’s other long-gestating project, an adaptation of Stephen King’s apocalyptic novel “The Stand” will no longer be his to carry. “Crazy Heart” director Scott Cooper will take over directing duties on that movie for Warner Bros. and CBS Films.
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