If the prospect of Casey Affleck starring in a 1930s-era, Los Angeles-set film noir written by Tom Epperson (currently titled The Kind One) doesn’t stroke your happy places, you might as well curl up with a volume of Erma Bombeck and renounce your film geek bona fides. You should absolutely know Epperson as the co-writer (with Billy Bob Thornton) of the great One False Move, the Carl Franklin-directed crime thriller that is in dire need of a decent DVD. And if Epperson hasn’t made much of an impact in the last sixteen years, it hasn’t been for a lack of trying; there’ve been a number of near miss projects, including one with Thornton as a director.
There’s no director attached to The Kind One just yet. And Thornton only has Tony Gilroy’s Duplicity on his post-Eagle Eye dance card. It’s not in my nature to be hopeful, but if we can get Thornton directing Affleck in an Epperson-scripted movie, I will dance a big ol’ Joe Hallenbeck jig.
Affleck will star as an amnesiac who gets caught up in the employ of a “sadistic killer” known as “The Kind One”. As this is a noir, there’s a girl. And since Affleck is the lead, he gets romantically involved with the girl… who happens to belong to “The Kind One”. I doubt this will end well.
To be honest, I’m not crazy about the amnesiac angle, but I’ll wait until I read a screenplay before I pass judgment on Epperson’s work. The Kind One is based on Epperson’s novel of the same name, which was just published on January 22nd (the author is waiting on the resolution of the WGA strike to finish the adaptation). Sean Bailey will produce for his Disney-housed ideology shingle.