Most Wanted/ZUMA Press, Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images, Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images Ben Affleck is going to Town in his latest project.
While the Oscar-winning thesp has previously tackled writing, directing and starring duties for big-screen projects, his latest endeavor, The Town, is the first where Affleck will combine all three.
According to the trades, the actor is set to play a career thief who falls for the manager of a bank and who must compete for her affections against the FBI agent trying to take him down. Romance and dark heist-based comedy ensue.
At least, that's the hope.
Affleck will be retooling the script penned by Peter Craig and Prince of Thieves novelist Chuck Hoga. And as with all Affleck pet projects, the film will be based in—where else?—a gritty blue-collar Boston suburb, this time Charlestown, Mass.
No start date has yet been set for the Warner Bros. project.
In other big casting news:
- The seemingly disparate acting triumvirate of Sam Rockwell, Rob Corddry and Emma "Niece of Julia" Roberts are getting into the game, signing on to star in The Winning Season. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Rockwell will play a has-been coach who gets a shot at redemption when offered a gig running a high school girls' basketball team. Corddry plays the school's no doubt sarcastic principal.
- CSI: NY is getting a piece of the Rumer mill. According to Entertainment Weekly, second-generation thesp Rumer Willis has signed on to star in the 100th episode of the CBS procedural, playing the victim of a serial killer who targets people with the name Mac Taylor (look out, Gary Sinise!) The episode airs Nov. 19.
- It doesn't take the smarts of a fifth grader to realize it pays to keep your talent happy. As it is, Fox has taken steps to expand its professional relationship with primetime host Jeff Foxworthy, greenlighting an animated pilot from the funnyman. Per Variety, the show centers on a dysfunctional family set in the world of NASCAR. The man knows his audience.
- Cheech Marin is flying high with Angel of Oxnard. The stoner-comedy legend is set to star and, for the first time in 15 years, direct the dramedy which, Variety reports, centers on a man named Angel who provides the voiceovers for Oxnard's local version of the Home Shopping Network and who finds himself at the center of global controversy when his face appears on a tortilla.
- Some of your fave small-screen stars are getting Corn-poked. Heroes' David Anders, Battlestar Galactica's Kandyse McClure, Dexter's Preston Bailey and Surface's Daniel Newman have all signed on to star in the Sci Fi Channel's Children of the Corn remake. The TV movie airs next year and is currently shooting in Iowa. Talk about your field of bad dreams.