Writing crime screenplays seems to be working out pretty well for Aaron Stockard. After serving as an assistant on flicks such as Good Will Hunting and The Talented Mr. Ripley, Stockard broke big by adapting Dennis Lehane's Gone Baby Gone with Ben Affleck. That movie helped establish a new phase of Affleck's career as a director, so it's not surprising that Stockard reteamed with Ben on The Town. While Affleck is nowhere to be seen on Stockard's new project, he is sticking with the genre that's cemented his career: Deadline reports that he will adapt Thomas Perry's crime novel Strip for RT Features and Thunder Road Pictures.
Published in 2010, Strip centers around a series of crimes and confrontations beginning with the robbery -- appropriately enough -- of a strip club owner. After Claudio "Manco" Kapak is held up by a masked robber who swipes the day's earnings, Manco sends out a swarm of security men to discover the robber's identity. They pinpoint a poor schmuck named Joe Carver, which is bad for two reasons: 1) He didn't do it, and 2) He's got the skills to make Manco regret crossing his path. As things spiral into chaos between Manco and Carver, the real robbers decide they've got a good thing going, but you just know that's going to turn out poorly for them.
Given how good Gone Baby Gone and The Town were, Strip definitely has potential. So far no director or cast is attached, but I bet Aaron Stockard has Ben Affleck in his rolodex...
