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Oct 24, 2011

Good Will Hunting Whitey Bulger


For those of you keeping score at home, that's five Obvious Headline points for me.

After almost 15 years, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck will once again team up on screen to bring us the story of legendary Boston mob boss Whitey Bulger.  According to Deadline, Affleck will produce, direct and co-star with Damon playing Bulger himself.  And, in typical Clint Howard fashion, Casey Affleck is expected to play a supporting role.  (Okay, that was a cheap shot, as I really do like the younger Affleck.  Besides, he has all the best lines in Good Will Hunting.)  Terence Winter, a.k.a. the mastermind behind Boardwalk Empire will take on scripting duties while Affleck finishes production on his current film Argo.

There are a handful of other projects in development that center on Bulger's lieutenants and whatnot so it's distinctly possible that we'll get competing Irish mafia movies battling it out at the box office before long.  It's hard to argue that Affleck and Damon aren't the perfect pair to do right by Bulger; for anyone who's lived in New England in the past 25 years, the man is the stuff of legend.  His recent arrest in Santa Monica (of course!) only makes him that much more of a hot commodity these days.

I'm gonna be honest: while I look forward to seeing what the Oscar winning duo can put together, The Departed (which featured Damon as a dirty cop and Jack Nicholson as an Irish mobster not-so-loosely based on Bulger) set the bar pretty damn high.  I can't help but wonder how you make this movie feel fresh and different.

Either way, it'll be nice to see Damon and Affleck together again for the first time since, well, since this:

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