Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck team up for Joan Didion-based Netflix film
Ben Affleck has landed his second Netflix original film. After joining Oscar Isaac (Star Wars: Episode IX) and Charlie Hunnam (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword) in J.C. Chandor’s Triple Frontier, the Batfleck actor now teams up with Ocean’s 8 star Anne Hathaway for The Last Thing He Wanted.
The film, based on Joan Didion’s 1996 novel of the same name, is directed by Dee Rees, the Oscar-nominated writer-director behind Netflix’s Mudbound. Rees and Marco Villalobos co-wrote the script, about “hardscrabble journalist Elena McMahon who finds herself on dangerous ground as the Iran Contra Affair’s arms for drugs plot reaches its tipping point.”
Affleck reprised his role of the Dark Knight in 2017’s Justice League, though his future as Batman has been plagued with doubts. (According to The Hollywood Reporter, he reportedly won’t be returning to the DC fold in this capacity.) The actor, who won two Oscars for his Good Will Hunting screenplay and film Argo, has other projects to keep him busy — including the sequel to The Accountant.
Hathaway, meanwhile, never seems to be out of work. Following the release of Ocean’s 8, she’ll be seen opposite Matthew McConaughey in Serenity.
The pair are joined in The Last Thing He Wanted by Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project), Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Rosie Perez (NBC’s Rise), Edi Gathegi (NBC’s The Blacklist), and Mel Rodriguez (the “Kill All Others” of Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams that Rees directed for Amazon).
The film is currently filming in Puerto Rico with an expected release date on Netflix in 2019.
Reese produces the film with Cassian Elwes, while Jamin O’Brien, Wayne Godfrey, Robert Jones, Mark Lane, and James Harris serve as executive producers.
