Ben Affleck, fresh from the success of his second directorial effort The Town, has apparently been offered the gig of directing Tales From The Gangster Squad, the story of a secret squad of police who tried to chase gangster Mickey Cohen out of LA in the 1940s.
While accepting the film would mean directing a film not set in his hometown of Boston, the upside of this one would be that it's an era he's almost familiar with from Hollywoodland, which, OK, was '50s LA not '40s, but had a very noir sort of vibe. And the story's rather cool: it's about a group of off-the-books mercenary cops who tried their (unofficial) best to get Cohen to leave town when he tried to set up shop in LA (following stints in Chicago and Las Vegas).
The film's based on a series of articles by journalist Paul Lieberman, but will be adapted for the screen by former South Central LA cop and novelist Will Beall.
Of course, Affleck's not short of offers at the moment, since he's also considering TV pilot Homeland and a film at Warners that could see him reunited with BFF Matt Damon. Watch this space to see which way he jumps.