Ben Affleck to helm The Big Goodbye chronicling the making of Chinatown

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Ben Affleck is ready to step behind the camera for the first time since 2016's LIVE BY NIGHT as Deadline reports that he's signed on to direct THE BIG GOODBYE for Paramount. Affleck is also set to pen the script for the project, which will be an adaptation of Sam Wasson's "The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood."

The novel tells the behind-the-scenes story of the making of Roman Polanski's CHINATOWN, the award-winning neo-noir which starred Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. "Looming over the story of the classic movie is the imminent eclipse of the ’70s filmmaker-friendly studios as they gave way to the corporate Hollywood we know today," reads Deadline's synopsis. Saturday Night Live's Lorne Michaels scored the rights to the book and will produce THE BIG GOODBYE alongside Ben Affleck. It's currently unknown whether Affleck will also act in the film, but with characters based on Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, Roman Polanski, Robert Evans, and more appearing throughout the tale, the project will likely attract an all-star cast eager to play the Hollywood legends.

A synopsis for "The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood" via Amazon:

Chinatown is the Holy Grail of 1970s cinema. Its twist ending is the most notorious in American film and its closing line of dialogue the most haunting. Here for the first time is the incredible true story of its making. In Sam Wasson's telling, it becomes the defining story of the most colorful characters in the most colorful period of Hollywood history. 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 dealmaking 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. Looming over the story of this classic movie is the imminent eclipse of the '70s filmmaker-friendly studios as they gave way to the corporate Hollywood we know today. In telling that larger story, The Big Goodbye will take its place alongside classics like Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and The Devil's Candy as one of the great movie-world books ever written.

Ben Affleck will next be seen in DEEP WATER on November 12, 2020, and is set to resume filming on Ridley Scott's THE LAST DUEL later this month. He will also be seen as Bruce Wayne/Batman in Zack Snyder's JUSTICE LEAGUE, which is coming to HBO Max next year.