Casey Affleck had a hell of a year last year, what with his stunning turn in The Assassination of Jesse James When He Ran Out Of Breath Trying To Say The Title Of His Film - for which he's Oscar-nominated - and Gone Baby Gone, still not out on these shores but trust us, it's very good. Now he's signed on for another film set amid criminals and psychopaths, as he takes a lead role in The Kind One, just going into pre-production.
The story comes from a just-published novel by Tom Epperson, who'll also write the screenplay once the strike is over. Affleck will play an amnesiac, Danny Landon, who can't remember who he is but is reliably informed that he's a gangster known as "Two-Gun Danny" who once mowed down a shipload of people in a heist at sea. Working for his sadistic gangster boss, nicknamed "The Kind One", Danny naturally lands in trouble when he falls in love with the kingpin's girlfriend, an alcoholic moll with a tragic secret past.
Epperson previously wrote the screenplays for films including One False Move and The Gift, so it's a fair bet that he'll be able to turn his own novel into a decent script. Affleck, meanwhile, has had all his best roles when he played part of, or someone dealing with, the criminal underbelly, so this looks like one to watch out for.