Another day, another what-will-Ben-Affleck-do-next rumour. Since the success of The Town, Ben Affleck has found himself being offered half the projects floating around Hollywood. But he’s taking his time deciding what he wants to do next, and has just added another possibility to the list: Eric Warren Singer’s script American Bullst**.
Even from a basic synopsis, this one sounds compelling for Affleck: it chronicles the strange true story of Abscam, the undercover sting that the FBI ran in the 1980s to smoke out corruption in the US Congress. And giving the story that extra little twist, convicted con artist Melvin Weinberg was hired by the bureau to help run the operation. It makes us think it could be Catch Me If You Can: The Later Years, and American studio types saw it land on the Black List of best unproduced scripts this past December.
The story of Abscam (named because the bureau set up fake business Abdul Enterprises to lure crooked senators and other officials) was the inspiration for the comedy script Moon Over Miami, which director Louis Malle wrote for Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi to star in. But Belushi’s death meant that the movie was scrapped. The current script has Dark Knight producer Charles Roven attached and a deal at Sony, but it remains to be seen if Affleck picks it from the pile.