While the Red Sox couldn’t manage to keep the Yankees at bay this season, a couple of Red Sox die-hards are gearing up to take the team’s shiny legacy down a peg. Ben Affleck confirmed that he and his brother, Casey Affleck, are gearing up to spank the Yanks by putting their own spin on a Bronx tale called The Trade.
The story follows two real-life Yankee pitchers, Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich, who traded wives back in the 70s. The script was originally written by Curb Your Enthusiasm producer David Mandel, but the brothers opted to use his version as a rough draft for the next Affleck masterpiece.
Casey doesn’t have a great deal of screenwriting under his belt, but he’s got a pretty good writing partner. Ben’s screenwriting is what catapulted him to fame in the first place (perhaps you remember that Oscar he and Matt Damon won for Good Will Hunting) and he’s proved that he knows his way around a director’s chair with 2007’s Gone Baby Gone and this year’s crime drama, The Town. In other words, yeah, I’m pretty stoked to see what he and Casey do with the Yankee drama.
Though nothing’s set in stone yet, it looks like Ben may continue his triple threat status. He’s hoping to step up to the plate as one of the film’s two leads and possibly as the film’s director. Even with all this speculation flying around, Ben told MTV News that he and Casey are just focusing on getting the script done for now. “I don’t know how it will come together — acting, directing, who will do it, but Casey and I decided to write it,” he said.
From the looks of things so far, the film will be a bit of a family affair, with the younger Affleck already attached and buzz about Matt Damon (okay, they aren’t related, but close enough) teaming up with his former collaborator once more. In fact, Damon recently confessed to MTV News that he’s “dying” to work with his old friend again. Rumor has it that Damon could take on the second lead next to Affleck, meaning both Fenway fanatics would be forced to don those detested pinstripes while filming – don’t worry boys, it’ll only take a few scalding hot showers to wash off the shame. While acting is by no means Ben’s greatest strength and I have no doubt that Matt will seriously outshine him, it would be, at the very least, incredibly entertaining to see the once dynamic duo reunite on the big screen for the first time since they dirtied up a pair of fallen angels in Dogma.
Source: MTV
