Earlier this year, while promoting his film Green Zone, I was able to participate in a roundtable interview with Matt Damon. One of the busier and more talented people working in movies today, the discussion was all over the place, from his potential role in a Bobby Kennedy biopic to his role is Steven Soderbergh's Contagion. One of the more interesting things he commented on was the possibility of directing a film himself. Just about to go film True Grit with the Coen brothers, he mentioned that he was "going to learn so much watching." Now it might be his time for him to put those lessons in use.
Speaking with MTV while promoting The Town, Ben Affleck began to talk about The Trade, a project he has been developing about two New York Yankee pitchers, Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich, who become involved in wife swapping. According to the actor/director, he and his brother, Casey, are currently doing a rewrite on the script and while they're not sure who will play the baseball players, it may be time for Damon to step into the director's chair. Said Affleck:
"Once the script's kind of ready, then it's like: Who's doing what? What's the time frame? Matt, me, Casey directing? Particularly for Matt, he's had this extraordinary career where he's worked with these great directors. He's a great director who just hasn't directed a movie."
Over the course of his career, Matt Damon has worked with the Coens, Soderbergh, Clint Eastwood, Paul Greengrass, Martin Scorsese, Terry Gilliam, Gus Van Sant, and Steven Spielberg - better known as some of the best directors working today. If Damon has indeed been taking lessons from all of the filmmakers he's been working with, I can't even begin to imagine how great he could be as a director. Here's hoping that Affleck isn't just throwing his out there as a possibility and Damon actually does it.
