Animals: Ben Affleck to direct Matt Damon in a kidnapping thriller at Netflix

After teaming up for the hit film Air, Ben Affleck will direct Matt Damon in Animals, a kidnapping thriller landing on Netflix.

Animals, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Netflix

The Dream Team is back! Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are teaming up again for Animals, a kidnapping thriller for Netflix. Affleck will direct Animals from a script written by Connor McIntyre with revisions by Billy Ray. In addition to his directorial duties, Affleck will produce alongside Damon, Dani Bernfeld of Artists Equity, Brad Weston, and Collin Creighton of MakeReady, who set the project up with Fifth Season.

Plot details remain a mystery, though we know it focuses on a kidnapping. Michael Joe of Artists Equity and Kevin Halloran executive produce with Fifth Season.

Last year, Affleck and Damon delighted audiences with Air, a sports drama following the history of sports marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro and how he led Nike in its pursuit of the greatest athlete in the history of basketball, Michael Jordan. The emotionally charged film performed like gangbusters for Amazon and banked $90 million at the global box office.

Here’s the official synopsis for Air:

From award-winning director Ben Affleck, AIR reveals the unbelievable game-changing partnership between a then-rookie Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division, which revolutionized the world of sports and contemporary culture with the Air Jordan brand. This moving story follows the career-defining gamble of an unconventional team with everything on the line, the uncompromising vision of a mother who knows the worth of her son’s immense talent, and the basketball phenom who would become the greatest of all time.

Air stars Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Chris Messina, Matthew Maher, Marlon Wayans, Jay Mohr, and Julius Tennon, with Chris Tucker and Viola Davis.

As the streaming wars continue to rage into 2024, Animals significantly boosts Netflix’s library of original feature-length entertainment. Audiences enjoy watching projects from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, as the duo has entertained the movie-going public for decades. If Animals is nearly as popular as Amazon’s Air, Netflix will laugh on its way to the bank.

Are you excited about Affleck and Damon teaming up for Animals? What do you think the tone of the project will be? Let us know in the comments section below.

Source: Deadline

About the Author

Born and raised in New York, then immigrated to Canada, Steve Seigh has been a JoBlo.com editor, columnist, and critic since 2012. He started with Ink & Pixel, a column celebrating the magic and evolution of animation, before launching the companion YouTube series Animation Movies Revisited. He's also the host of the Talking Comics Podcast, a personality-driven audio show focusing on comic books, film, music, and more. You'll rarely catch him without headphones on his head and pancakes on his breath.