What's better than one Affleck? Two Afflecks. And what's better than two Afflecks? Two Afflecks and a Damon. That's right, all three are coming together, putting their Voltron like powers toward a project that's a bit unexpected.
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will produce "Race To The South Pole," with Casey Affleck set to star, THR reports. We just bought our ticket. Penned by Peter Glanz (who recently shot his directorial debut "The Longest Week" with Jason Bateman and Olivia Wilde), and picked up by Warner Bros., the film will tell the true story of Englishman Robert Falcon Scott (Affleck) and Norwegian Roald Amundsen, who in the early 1900s competed in a race to reach the South Pole which at the time was still largely unexplored. That's pretty excellently ambitious stuff, and perfectly suited to the big screen so here's hoping this one keeps moving right along.
This of course isn't the first time the trio have worked together, with three at one time trying to mount wife swapping Yankees tale "The Trade" (with Ben and Matt starring, and all them writing) before legal woes pretty much stopped that one cold. And the trio have also got that Whitey Bulger biopic, that Ben would direct with Matt and Casey starring, with the script coming from "Boardwalk Empire" scribe Terence Winter. And that one at least is very much in the cards.
Based on the true story of the notorious head of the Boston outfit the Winter Hill gang, Bulger evaded capture for years, before he was dramatically arrested last year in California. And it sounds pretty epic in scope thus far. “Terence Winter [has] written a first draft. It’s a movie I really want to make. It’s a tough story because it’s a long story and I really want to do the whole span. I want to go from Alcatraz where they experimented on him with LSD all the way ending up in the farmers market in Santa Monica," Ben Affleck told Examiner. "I will direct it. Matt (Damon) will star in it. My brother (Casey Affleck) will play Billy. I’m really excited for it, my only concern, ok I have two things, I want to do it right, you can’t f–k up Whitey Bulger. But I know there’s other guys out there who want to make the movie so do you want to be second? You diminish the appetite.” Affleck's last comment is likely referring to the movie Peter Facinelli is trying to get made, based on the same topic. But still, he's really keen to do it.
“If there was a movie that me and Matt were meant to do together, this has gotta be the one,” Affleck told the Boston Herald. “It’s where my heart is, but there’s a lot of stuff, and we’re trying to cull it and we’re probably twice as careful about this one because we know the degree of scrutiny that people are going to have — particularly in Boston.” Affleck hasn't ruled out acting in the film, saying he's really tempted to take the part of FBI agent John Connolly, the duplicitious man who kept Bulger safe for years, when the gangster was working for them as an informant.
So yes, lots on the table for these three and it seems the fire is there for something to bring them together sooner rather than later.