Ben Affleck in the director's chair for Gone Baby Gone (Miramax)
Ben Affleck's career has been, shall we say, uneven. He's scored some indie hits with Kevin Smith, starred in a few Hollywood blockbusters, and won an Oscar for writing Good Will Hunting with his Beantown pal Matt Damon. But he's also suffered the public humiliation of such Hollywood duds as Daredevil and the now infamous Gigli, which co-starred his then girlfriend Jennifer Lopez. He dabbled in directing back in 1993 with short-in-length but long-in-title I Killed my Lesbian Wife, Hung Her on a Meat Hook, and Now I Have a Three-Picture Deal at Disney. Then in 2002 he went into producing such projects as the TV show Project Greenlight. Now Affleck makes a serious stab at feature film directing with Gone Baby Gone (opened Oct. 19 throughout San Diego), which stars his younger brother Casey.
The novel Gone Baby Gone was penned by Dennis Lehane, the same man who wrote the Mystic River . Both novels are set in and around Boston, and focus on crimes involving children. Both stories serve up bleak tales about the odd ways lives intersect and the way the past informs the present. Clint Eastwood was able to win acclaim for his screen adaptation of Lehane's Mystic River back in 2003. Now Affleck wants to see if he can strike gold with his adaptation of a Lehane novel.
