Pitching the Next Ben Affleck and Matt Damon Movie
You're welcome for the free ideas, Matt and Ben
In the years following their Oscar-winning hit Good Will Hunting, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were too busy becoming movie stars to write and lead in many movies together. Now established Hollywood figures in their 50s, Affleck and Damon are collaborating once again. After co-writing and acting in The Last Duel together in 2021, the best buds from Boston co-founded a production company called Artists Equity, which has its first film out in theaters this week, the Affleck-directed Air.
Based on our newsletter name alone, we were always going to be excited for another Affleck and Damon movie, so it was no surprise that we both really enjoyed Air. In honor of their friendship and partnership, we have had an all Affleck-Damon week at Do You Like Apples. On Wednesday night, we did a Matt Damon Movie Draft on Spotify Live, where we each selected six Damon movies. Give it a listen here to see who had the better lineup.
For the newsletter today, we are pitching the next Affleck and Damon collaboration. We set up a potential story, genre, director, and cast that we would like to see. All they need to do is actually write, fund, and make the movie. You’re welcome for the free ideas, Matt and Ben.
Billy’s Affleck & Damon movie pitch
Director: John Woo
Cast: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Sarah Snook, Issa Rae, Thomasin Mackenzie, Shameik Moore
Genre: Action / War (Civil War)
Title: Brother Against Brother
Story: Two brothers, one enlisted in the Union and the other in the Confederacy, reunite after the older brother in the Confederacy (Ben Affleck) unexpectedly comes back to his home in Northern Texas after the Battle of Palmito Ranch. What he comes home to is a calm household filled with his younger brother’s (Matt Damon) family and former slaves that are now employed by the former plantation they worked on, who have been living this way for a couple years. Bringing back home the rivalry that they never experienced on the battlefield and ruining a household/town in the process.
Watching Face/Off recently made me wonder what caused John Woo to end his American run as a filmmaker. A change in culture from China to the American business of movie making seems to be the major factor. Much more studio interference and difficulties getting his violent action to stick to an R rating. His major success in America came with two movies, Mission: Impossible 2 and Face/Off. While John Woo deserves the credit for the critical and lasting success of his movies, I think there are multiple factors that went into the box office success. The major factor being the actors he paired himself with. Tom Cruise the star and one of the producers of Mission: Impossible 2 and Nicolas Cage the star of Face/Off. This is all speculation, but by many accounts both A-List people are true fans of world cinema. Opening for John Woo to bypass the more restrictive Hollywood system so that he can make a true John Woo movie.
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon feel like actors (and producers) who would possibly give John Woo the same opportunities to make a comeback into American cinema. What I am envisioning is a Civil War-set action movie that takes a “Once Upon a Time…” fairy-tale approach. Using historical events as the inspiration for a story but having clear messaging so that none of this is taken as absolute fact. Hopefully once that trust is built when audiences sit down for a movie set in the Civil War John Woo can use Affleck and Damon in the absurdity that his movies typically bring.
Affleck is inherently more fit to adapt himself to the absurdity than Damon is. There are successes like The Last Duel that make this clear and misses like Gigli that show his willingness or lack of judgment to just go for it. Damon stretches himself with the type of characters he plays whether they’re a villain, hero, or cameo, but he is always distinctively Matt Damon. All this being said, Damon will not be a straight man in the wake of Affleck’s absurdity. They are both being chosen for this Woo project because they will fully buy into this legend’s vision. And that vision will no doubt be insane, imaginative, and wild.
Drew’s Affleck & Damon movie pitch
Director: Ben Affleck
Cast: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Idris Elba, Jennifer Lopez, Haley Lu Richardson, Cole Hauser
Genre: Con artist caper
Story: Two former con artists (Affleck and Damon) team up for one last job in order to take down a mob boss (Idris Elba) that turned them into the FBI decades ago.
If you’ve seen The Sting with Robert Redford and Paul Newman, the above might look a little familiar. While we’re not remaking that 1973 classic, we are using that con man caper as a model for the Affleck-Damon version. When you have two charming movie stars that play well off each other, you can’t go wrong with a con artist movie, which are almost always fun to watch anyway.
The Sting was set during the Great Depression, but our story will take place in 1970s Boston. Damon and Affleck play former con men and friends that worked together for years before a mob boss they crossed turned the pair into the FBI. Over 20 years later, after prison time and little contact with each other, Affleck and Damon’s characters reunite to get back in the game and cheat Elba’s mob kingpin out of millions.
Certain things about this story pitch I’m inventing might not make sense, so I’m getting screenwriter Ted Griffin to write my movie. Griffin wrote Ocean’s Eleven and Matchstick Men (an underrated con man movie), so his skills with the dialogue of this world and the plot construction will be sorely needed. Affleck and Damon will co-write the screenplay with him, and Affleck will direct.
We’re going for a freewheeling vibe and lighter tone with this movie (like The Sting, but with way less ragtime music), so Elba is a natural to play the heavy. He’s an actor that can bring an intense gravitas, while still clearly having fun playing a villain. All of these characters are criminals, but we need to be on Affleck and Damon’s side, so Elba’s going to have to be a nasty brute that is still magnetic for an audience.
Rounding out the cast is Jennifer Lopez, Haley Lu Richardson, and Cole Hauser. J-Lo will play Elba’s wife (and possibly the real powerbroker of this criminal underworld?), Richardson will play an up-and-coming con artist that Affleck and Damon hire for the job, and Hauser will take a break from Yellowstone to reunite with his Good Will Hunting pals to play Elba’s right hand man. Let’s get this movie funded yesterday.