Ben Affleck has more than a few exciting projects coming down the pike in the next few years, including Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, his own next directorial effort Live By Night, and the newly-announced David Fincher-helmed remake of Strangers on a Train, but there’s another project that you should be looking out for as well. It’s called The Accountant, and it’s in the process of putting together a very impressive cast.
Described as an action-thriller, the new film will star Affleck as a mild-mannered, socially-weird government accountant who moonlights as a highly trained assassin. Warrior’s Gavin O’Connor is helming the movie, and while it sounds as though Affleck’s character will be the central focus of the narrative, he has some pretty great supporting actors backing him up.
The most recent addition to the cast of The Accountant - which is what inspired this little rundown – is none other than the great John Lithgow, who we just saw in blockbuster mode this past fall with an Earth-bound role in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. In the movie, according to Deadline, he will be playing Lamar Black, a "tech magnate" working in robotics who seems to actually have some real accounting work for Affleck’s character.
Seemingly playing the film’s lead female role, Anna Kendrick will be bringing her personal brand of frenetic energy and charm to The Accountant. It seems she’ll be teamed up with Affleck for most of the movie, as she’ll be playing a character described by the Daily Mail as being a young accountant who works with the film’s protagonist and winds up getting involved in his deadly shenanigans.
Of course, every hitman needs some sort of mentor/handler who can keep them cool and doll out assignments – and in this case that role will be played by Jeffrey Tambor. It is his responsibility in the story to show the titular character the ropes in the game of assassination and how things really work
Jon Berthal, who first got his big break playing the unstable Shane Walsh on The Walking Dead, has been getting more film work recently in titles like Fury and The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Accountant will take him even further into the big screen world. At this point we don’t know much about his role in the movie, but it has been learned that will be a mercenary. Friend or foe? We don’t know.
Those who enjoy their superheroes on television likely recognize Cynthia Addai-Robinson from her part as Amanda Waller on The CW series Arrow, but The Accountant will be her first feature film since playing "San Francisco Woman" in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness. Like the case with Bernthal, we’re not entirely sure how she fits into the story just yet, but she will be playing a Treasure Department analyst in the movie.
Finally, there’s J.K. Simmons, the great character actor who has been mentioned in articles all day thanks to the Best Supporting Actor nomination he received for the Academy Awards that was announced this morning. The Accountant is just one of the post-Whiplash roles he’s been picking up recently – having notably up a part in Kong: Skull Island - though at this point we actually no nothing about the role he’s going to play. Maybe it’s a surprise?
The Accountant is in production now, but a release date has not yet been announced.
