First announced back in 2011, Ben Affleck has plans to direct a Whitey Bulger biopic with Matt Damon targeting the Bulger role. Today, Deadline reports that the project is once again gaining some traction as Warner Bros. has brought aboard Gone Baby Gone and The Town screenwriter Aaron Stockard to rewrite the screenplay.
Bulger, now 84 years old, is a former organized crime figure from Boston, Massachusetts. He was said to be a “Robin Hood”-style social bandit who targeted drug kingpins and illegal gambling operations. Beginning in 1975, Bulger served as an informant for the FBI, which ignored his organization in exchange for information on the Italian American Patriarca crime family.
In 1994, there was a pending indictment under the RICO act, causing Bulger to remain at large for 16 years. Bulger was arrested on June 22, 2011 on 19 counts of murder in Santa Monica, California. He has not sought bail and remains in custody at the Plymouth County House of Correction in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
The untitled film has some potential competition in Barry Levinson’s planned Bulger biopic Black Mass which, at one point, had Johnny Depp attached to play the leading role. It is uncertain how soon Affleck might attempt his take. He can next be seen in Brad Furman’s Runner Runner and is currently shooting David Fincher’s Gone Girl before he directs They Live By Night and stars as Batman/Bruce Wayne in Zack Snyder’s Batman/Superman film.
(Photo Credit: Judy Eddy / WENN)
