Hollywood Popular Artists

May 8th 2013, 17:30

An adaptation of the Dennis Lehane novel "Live By Night" is the next project on Ben Affleck's docket. The actor-turned-director reportedly started pre-production on the film today.

Deadline reports that Affleck and Warner Bros. are eying a August or September filming start date for the movie. Affleck will star in the film as well as direct, write and produce it. Though Affleck moved away from Boston for his Oscar-winner "Argo," he will be returning to his home city—at least partially—for this new movie. "Live By Night" is set in Boston, Tampa and Cuba.

"Gone Baby Gone," Affleck's directorial debut, was also an adaptation of a Lehane novel, so it's nice to see him come full circle. Interestingly, "Live By Night" is the second story in a proposed trilogy, though the first novel, "The Given Day," has never been adapted into a film. Here's the Amazon book description of "Live By Night."

Prohibition has given rise to an endless network of underground distilleries, speakeasies, gangsters, and corrupt cops. Joe Coughlin, the youngest son of a prominent Boston police captain, has long since turned his back on his strict and proper upbringing. Now having graduated from a childhood of petty theft to a career in the pay of the city's most fearsome mobsters, Joe enjoys the spoils, thrills, and notoriety of being an outlaw.

But life on the dark side carries a heavy price. In a time when ruthless men of ambition, armed with cash, illegal booze, and guns, battle for control, no one—neither family nor friend, enemy nor lover—can be trusted. Beyond money and power, even the threat of prison, one fate seems most likely for men like Joe: an early death. But until that day, he and his friends are determined to live life to the hilt.

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