Miramax, Aaron Stockard and Ben Affleck making THE BLADE ITSELF
The team who brought us the great adaptation of GONE BABY GONE have secured the rights to another gritty crime novel.
Gone Baby Gone was an incredible directorial debut from the multi-talented Ben Affleck who in the past two years has finally started to put those terrible low brow comedies behind him and has really stepped up his game as an interesting voice in the industry once again. Smartly, the news today is that Affleck is teaming once again with Gone Baby Gone screenwriter Aaron Stockard and Miramax Studio's to produce (and possibly direct but the trades don't say that) another film noir/crime novel in The Blade Itself, a well reviewed first time novel from Marcus Sakey.
"Blade" revolves around two Chicago childhood friends who made their reputation committing petty crimes as kids before choosing different paths in life. When they are reunited years later, one is forced to decide how far he will go to protect the secrets of his past. Esquire magazine named the novel one of the five best of 2007.Affleck currently has no directing projects in the works so I guess with him producing that it's his flick if he wants to direct it. I would love to see Affleck become the crime novelist specialist, adapting dark and grim books that your never likely to read and transforming them into an unforgettable and honest movie that really fucks with your emotions and gets you thinking. Affleck - the actor - is currently in post-production on ensemble comedy movie He's Just Not That Into You and is currently out filming State of Play alongside Russell Crowe after replacing Edward Norton as the rather sleazy congressman whose mistress is found dead at a tube station. REALLY can't wait to see what Affleck can do opposite an actor like Russell Crowe, even if I thought Edward Norton and Brad Pitt was just genius original casting. Lots of good Ben Affleck stuff to look forward to in the future. Boy it's been too long since I've been able to say that!