If Billy Bob Thornton isn’t going to direct Tom Epperson’s screenplay for The Kind One, I’ll gladly take Sir Ridley Scott as a back-up. While we’re once again denied a One False Move reunion, I can’t blame Scott for stepping in to work with Casey Affleck, who gave a career making performance in Andrew Dominik’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (which Scott Free produced). If Affleck isn’t on the verge of stardom, it’s because he’s too damn interesting on screen.
Based on Epperson’s novel of the same name, The Kind One is a noir-ish thriller set in 1930s Los Angeles. Affleck will play an amnesiac who finds work with a homicidal thug bearing the titular nickname. As noir protagonists are wont to do, Affleck throws himself into a precarious situation by falling in love with the gangster’s gal. Bad shit ensues.
Jules Daly, Scott’s co-producer, tells Variety that the 30s milieu is “a world that Ridley has never touched before”; personally, I’m excited because it gives Scott the opportunity to create a pure, non-futuristic (and rainy) period noir environment in Los Angeles. Put Affleck in the lead, and this is already one of my most anticipated movies for… 2010, I guess. Currently, Nottingham is in the way. I hope Affleck finds something worthwhile to do in the interim. Just stay away from those damn Ice Capades.
The project is set up at Warner Brothers.