A movie titled Arizona feels problematic to me for two reasons. First, there's the obvious Raising Arizona joke, which I'm amazed wasn't used in the headline for the Variety piece on the project today. Second, Baz Luhrmann just ran into trouble trying to name a movie after an entire landmass with Australia. Sure, making a movie called Arizona is starting at least a little smaller, but even The Copper State might be hard to summarize in one short feature.

But Ben Affleck is up for the challenge, especially since Arizona doesn't actually seem to be a movie about the entire state. Instead it's the story of an investigative reporter, Don Bolles, who was killed in the process of investigating the role of organized crime in the state government. Affleck would likely direct the story for Miramax, making it his follow-up to 2007's Gone Baby Gone.

It seems a little dicey to make a politically tinged thriller about Arizona with John McCain still prominent on the national stage, but hey, why do it if it's not some kind of risk? I like what Affleck showed us with Gone Baby Gone, and I'm excited to see his directing style evolve and mature over time.