The making of iconic Hollywood movie Chinatown is getting the movie treatment from Ben Affleck and Paramount.
Affleck will write the script and is set to direct The Big Goodbye, an adaptation of The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood by author Sam Wasson.
Affleck will also produce with Lorne Michaels, who initially nabbed the rights to the book.
Goodbye chronicles the making of what is considered one of the great American films of all time, made in a period where auteurs were bringing a unique authorship to the movie business.
From the publisher’s description, which shows the key players in the behind-the-scenes drama:
Here is Jack Nicholson at the height of his powers, as compelling a movie star as there has ever been, embarking on his great, doomed love affair with Anjelica Huston. Here is director Roman Polanski, both predator and prey, haunted by the savage death of his wife, returning to Los Angeles, the scene of the crime, where the seeds of his own self-destruction are quickly planted. Here is the fevered deal-making of “The Kid” Robert Evans, the most consummate of producers. Here too is Robert Towne’s fabled script, widely considered the greatest original screenplay ever written. Wasson for the first time peels off layers of myth to provide the true account of its creation.
Affleck last directed the 2016 Prohibition-era gangster movie Live by Night while his 2012 film, Argo, won the Oscar for best picture. He is currently shooting The Last Duel, which has resumed shooting in Ireland.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
