Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Vol. 5 Num 300 Fri. April 01, 2005  
   
Culture


Affleck turns to director's chair


He hit it big as a screenwriter, rose and fell as an actor, and even dabbled in presidential politics. Now Ben Affleck is trying his hand in the director's chair.

The actor who won an Oscar for co-writing 1997's Good Will Hunting with his buddy Matt Damon, has signed up to direct a movie titled Gone, Baby, Gone, for the Walt Disney Co.'s Touchstone Pictures, a Disney spokesperson said Tuesday.

The film is adapted from writer Dennis Lehane's novel of the same name. Lehane also wrote Mystic River, which was turned into an Oscar-nominated movie in 2003 by actor-director Clint Eastwood.

The novel Gone, Baby, Gone tells of two working class private detectives in Boston, Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, who are hired to search for a missing child.

The film version is expected to begin shooting this fall in Boston.

Affleck, 32, has seen career ups and downs as an actor in recent years. He scored hits with 2001's Pearl Harbour and with thrillers Changing Lanes and Daredevil, but more recently suffered through duds such as Gigli, Jersey Girl and Paycheck.

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