After tons of speculation about what his next project would be, Ben Affleck has decided to return to a proven source, sort of. Deadline is reporting that Affleck will next adapt Dennis Lehane’s novel LIVE BY NIGHT through Warner Bros. The novel will mark his second directorial effort after debuting with GONE BABY GONE back in 2007.
LIVE BY NIGHT is actually a sequel to Lehane’s novel THE GIVEN DAY. Both stories follow a sprawling New England family through several generations of history. While THE GIVEN DAY focused on an Irish Boston cop and an African American baseball player during World War I, LIVE BY NIGHT tackles a story that follows in the footsteps of THE GODFATHER and GOODFELLAS.
A cop’s son falls in with bad guys and becomes one. But in Lehane’s hands, the Prohibition-era tale of Joe Coughlin’s rise to criminal power is both fresh and nuanced, packed with guns, booze, and babes as it roars from Boston to Tampa to Cuba. As Coughlin crosses deeper into the dark side–among those who “live by night and dance fast”–he provokes the question that sustains this propulsive narrative: Can a man be a good mobster and a good person at the same time? Incredibly, Lehane, who becomes more masterful with each book, has us rooting for Coughlin even as he slowly becomes the kind of monster mobster he once reviled and rebelled against.
While it initially seemed odd to me that Affleck would be filming the second book in a series instead of the first chapter, the content does seem to keep in line with the types of stories he has told as a filmmaker. LIVE BY NIGHT will be co-produced by Affleck’s buddies Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio. DiCaprio previously appeared in the adaptation of Lehane’s SHUTTER ISLAND.
I personally would have liked to see Affleck jump into his long developed take on Stephen King‘s THE STAND, but I will take whatever he is willing to put his talent to. LIVE BY NIGHT will be a great thriller/crime saga with him behind the camera.
Pre-production starts today on LIVE BY NIGHT with Affleck directing and starring as he did in ARGO and THE TOWN. No other cast has been announced. Who would you like to see join this project?
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