In 2010, Casey Affleck branched out from acting, becoming a writer, producer, director and cinematographer on the controversial I'm Still Here, the faux documentary that riled audiences until Affleck confessed it was staged. Ultimately it divided critics and earned little more than $500,000 in theaters. But Affleck isn't done producing tricky features.
Deadline reports Affleck and screenwriter Chuck Maclean have sold a pitch to Warner Bros. for a thriller about the police investigation surrounding the infamous Boston Strangler, who is believed to have molested and murdered 13 women in the Massachusetts capital back in the 1960s. Affleck will executive produce the pic, and has an eye on starring as one of the detectives on the case. Maclean, who was recently hired to adapt the true-crime tale Storming Las Vegas for Summit, will pen the screenplay, presently called simply Boston Strangler.
In case you don't know the details of the decades-old case, I'll avoid "spoilers" here, but Boston Strangler will focus on a dedicated detective who is seeking out the titular rapist and murderer while maneuvering through a political climate that is desperate for an arrest. With the public falling into a panic, the pressure to collar someone for these horrifying crimes is hotter than ever, but will it lead to a wrongful conviction?
This seems a great fit for Affleck as it has much in common with one of his best-regarded roles, that of Patrick Kenzie in his brother Ben's directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone. Like that film, Boston Strangler is a Beantown-set crime thriller that centers on a politically charged investigation that would have Affleck playing an ethically conflicted detective. Since the actor's likeability took a hit with I'm Still Here and Michael Winterbottom's sickening drama The Killer Inside Me, which was deemed by many to be misogynistic, a return to his roots in this way could be a welcomed bolster to Affleck's appeal and career.
