Ben Affleck’s crime thriller Animals is coming back together, this time with a new star very familiar to the filmmaker. Himself.
Matt Damon was originally on board to star in Animals, with Affleck in the director’s chair, when Netflix and Artists Equity were producing the movie a year ago. The project fell apart due to script issues, but those have since been resolved. In the meantime, whoever, Damon went on to sign on to star in a small movie titled The Odyssey that is being directed by up-and-coming filmmaker Christopher Nolan. Odyssey is due to begin principal photography later this month and shoot in locales around the world.
The project has been revived with Affleck still in the director’s chair. But he will now star in it as well. Gillian Anderson, the X-Files star who in recent years appeared as Margaret Thatcher in Netflix’s The Crown, is also joining the production.
As before, the project aims to shoot in Los Angeles and is looking at an April start.
Written by Connor McIntyre with revisions by Billy Ray, the crime thriller concerns a mayoral candidate and his wife whose son is kidnapped. Surrounded by plenty of enemies, political and otherwise, the husband and wife have no choice but to get their hands dirty in order to save their son.
Affleck and Damon will produce via their Artists Equity, along with the company’s Dani Bernfeld. Also producing are Brad Weston and Collin Creighton via their MakeReady banner. Fifth Season, the production, sales and distribution company formerly known as Endeavor Content, will also produce. The company developed the project in partnership with MakeReady.
Artists Equity’s Michael Joe, Kevin Halloran, and Lucy Damon will serve as executive producers alongside Fifth Season.
Affleck is quite adept at juggling directing and acting on the same project, having ably done so for The Town and Argo, which won the Oscar for best picture in 2013, as well as 2016’s Live by Night. He last directed 2023’s Air, in which he acted in a supporting capacity opposite Damon. Affleck is repped by WME and Ziffren Brittenham.
Anderson will be seen this year on the big screen with Tron: Ares, which will hit Oct. 10, and is part of the sprawling cast of The Abandons, a Kurt Sutter Western series at Netflix. She is repped by UTA and Independent Talent Group.
English (US) ·