Back in 1997 Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were introduced to us as a matched pair-- the blond and the brunet, the actor and the buddy behind the scenes, the skinny one and the brawny one. Since then they've each had careers that spun off in wildly directions, with Damon going from blank pretty boy to one of the most exciting actors working, and Affleck recovering from a series of awful acting choices to become a pretty decent director himself.

Now, after all this time, Matt and Ben are talking about reuniting again-- behind the scenes, at least. Vulture reports that the two are re-forming their production company, which started in 1997 under the name LivePlanet at Disney, but will probably go by a different name in its new life at Warner Bros.

Apparently the plan is for Damon to use this as a launchpad for a directing career-- he's been paying close attention as he's worked with Steven Soderbergh, Martin Scorsese and Paul Greengrass in the last few years, and if he's as quick a study as a director as he is an actor, he should be in fine shape. Expect a formal announcement of the production deal as early as this week, and even more fascinating career paths for these guys after that.