ben_affleck_02Poor Kristen Stewart. She finally signs on to an outright comedy to star against Ben Affleck, and the motherfucker goes and drops out for… a really cool sounding movie.

His replacement feature, Live By Night, is based on a book by Dennis Lehane, writer of Gone Baby Gone. Taking place during prohibition, it will be another Boston-set tale of crime and revenge for the filmmaker, though this time the main character is a crooked cop. If the book’s synopsis is to be believe though, it could be even more epic and globe-trotting than Argo.

Joe embarks on a dizzying journey up the ladder of organized crime that takes him from the flash of Jazz Age Boston to the sensual shimmer of Tampa’s Latin Quarter to the sizzling streets of Cuba. Live by Night is a riveting epic layered with a diverse cast of loyal friends and callous enemies, tough rumrunners and sultry femmes fatales, Bible-quoting evangelists and cruel Klansmen, all battling for survival and their piece of the American dream. At once a sweeping love story and a compelling saga of revenge, it is a spellbinding tour de force of betrayal and redemption, music and murder, that brings fully to life a bygone era when sin was cause for celebration and vice was a national virtue.

It’s not spelled out if this is another Affleck starring vehicle as well as directorial gig, but I see no reason why it wouldn’t be. I guess we’ll find out if Affleck can aloof his way through another batch of exotic locations!

Also, don’t read to much into it if the first (and maybe 6th and 17th) guy to get mercilessly murdered in Live By Night just happens to be named “Oscar.”

 

Source | MTV (via Coming Soon, BAD)