After getting praise for his take on Dennis Lehane’s Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck is looking at the work of Chuck Hogan for his second directorial effort.
Affleck is currently in negotiations to direct, and star, in The Town, based on Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan.
“Charlestown, a blue-collar Boston neighborhood, produces more bank robbers and armored car thieves than any square mile in the world. In this gripping, intricately plotted thriller, Claire Keesey, the branch manager for a Boston bank and one of an influx of young professionals chipping away at the neighborhood’s insularity, is taken hostage during a robbery. She is released, but Doug MacRay, the brains behind the tough, tight-knit crew of thieves, can’t get her out of his mind. Tracking her down without his mask and gun, Doug introduces himself, and as soon as he and Claire meet, their mutual attraction is undeniable — as are the risks of a relationship.
Meanwhile, Doug’s crew pulls off another audacious, meticulously planned job. Frustrated by their ingenuity and brazen ambition, FBI Agent Adam Frawley begins to zero in on Doug and his pals — and against his own better judgment, he, too, develops more than a professional interest in Claire.
Under pressure from Frawley’s ever-closer investigation, Doug imagines a life for himself away from bank robberies and Charlestown. But before that can happen, the crew learns that there may be a way to rob Boston’s venerable baseball stadium, Fenway Park. It’s a magnificently dangerous and utterly irresistible opportunity — yet for Doug, pursuing his former hostage may be the most dangerous act of all…”
As the summary says, this story is set in Boston (same as Gone Baby Gone) where Affleck is from.
If he signs on, Affleck will also do a rewrite of the screenplay.
