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Ben Affleck to write script, direct making of Hollywood's iconic film 'Chinatown'

WION Web Team
New Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Aug 10, 2020, 04:24 PM IST
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File image of Ben Affleck. Photograph:(Reuters)

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Ben Affleck last directed the 2016 Prohibition-era gangster movie ‘Live by Night’ while his 2012 film, ‘Argo’, won the Oscar for best picture.

Ben Affleck is now getting into scripting, direction in a big way. 

The actor is a part of the team reimagining the making of iconic Hollywood movie ‘ Chinatown’. With Paramount backing, the Hollywood actor will write the script and direct ‘the Big Goodbye’, an adaptation of ‘The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood’ by author Sam Wasson.

Ben Affleck will also produce with Lorne Michaels, who initially bought the rights to the book.

‘The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood’ chronicles the making of what is considered one of the great American films of all time, made in a period where auteurs were bringing a unique authorship to the movie business.

From the publisher’s description, which shows the key players in the behind-the-scenes drama:

Here is Jack Nicholson at the height of his powers, as compelling a movie star as there has ever been, embarking on his great, doomed love affair with Anjelica Huston. Here is director Roman Polanski, both predator and prey, haunted by the savage death of his wife, returning to Los Angeles, the scene of the crime, where the seeds of his own self-destruction are quickly planted. Here is the fevered dealmaking of "The Kid" Robert Evans, the most consummate of producers. Here too is Robert Towne's fabled script, widely considered the greatest original screenplay ever written. Wasson for the first time peels off layers of myth to provide the true account of its creation.

Ben Affleck last directed the 2016 Prohibition-era gangster movie ‘Live by Night’ while his 2012 film, ‘Argo’, won the Oscar for best picture. He is currently shooting ‘The Last Duel’.