Ben Affleck to direct Live By Night

Ben Affleck’s love affair with his hometown of Boston continues as Deadline reports that he is in talks with Warner Bros. to write, direct, produce and star in an adaptation of the latest novel by Dennis Lehane (Shutter Island) - Live By Night – with the film also set to be co-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. Affleck has already worked on a Dennis Lehane novel in the form of his directorial debut Gone Baby Gone, which was also set in his home town of Boston – as was his follow-up feature, the hugely successfully The Town.

Live by Night is a prohibition drama set in Boston which focuses on a character called Joe Coughlin, who finds himself slipping into a life of organized crime despite the fact that he is the son of a police officer. Affleck is certainly keeping himself busy at the moment with a number of high profile projects in the pipeline, including a collaboration with Matt Damon on a film about the life of famed Boston mobster Whitey Bulger, who was on the FBI’s ten Most Wanted list for the past few decades before finally being arrested after years of hiding in California. With Terence Winter (The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire) writing the screenplay, it’s shaping up to be a very exciting prospect.