Ben Affleck Will Direct The MCDONALD’S MONOPOLY HEIST Movie
Over the weekend, this Daily Beast post was everywhere you looked on social media, and with good reason - that story has everything: McDonald's getting hoodwinked, crooked ex-cops, psychics, mobsters, a family of Mormons, a devious heist which ultimately brought in millions of dollars.
It's an undeniably great story, so of course it only took a matter of days for Hollywood to get involved. According to Deadline, Ben Affleck has officially signed on to direct Matt Damon in a film based on The Daily Beast's epic longform read, with Deadpool's Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese attached to write the script (this is all happening at Fox, by the way, not Warner Bros., where Affleck's been stationed for quite some time; do with that information what you will).
Here's a rundown of the plot, in case you didn't read the original post:
"The article opens in 2001 in Rhode Island, as a million dollar check is delvered to a man who said he’d won the $1 million grand prize after collecting Monopoly pieces attached to food products, defying the 1 in 250 million odds and modeled after the venerable board game that the piece says was invented as a warning about the destructive nature of greed. A camera crew was dispatched to hear how the man won, and they chronicled his series of lies. They were FBI agents closing in on a sting that began with a tip about an “Uncle Jerry,” who’d sell stolen game pieces. Solid detective work unearthed Jerry Jacobson, a head of security for a Los Angeles company responsible for generating the game pieces. It led to a wide conspiracy that involved mobsters, psychic, strip-club owners, drug traffickers and a family of Mormons who falsely claimed to have won more than $24 million in cash and prizes."
Look, folks give Ben Affleck a hard time, and it's hard to argue that his most recent directorial effort, Live By Night, didn't deserve much of the scorn that was heaped upon it. But for our money, he's also still the guy who directed Gone Baby Gone, The Town and Argo. Dude's got two Oscars. With him at the helm, Damon in front of the camera, Wernick/Reese scripting and this particular story being told, we think there's a strong chance they'll end up with something really fun here. Drag Affleck if you must, but we will watch the everloving shit out of this movie.
Anyway, with these deals already falling into place, we should expect to hear more in the very near future, so stand by for further updates (also, definitely don't bother with Live By Night if you haven't already).
(Note: Header photo by Aranami used w/ permission via Flickr)
