Ben Affleck May Be Lining Up Action Thriller Line Of Sight

On the same days tabloids confirm that Jennifer Garner’s pregnant with their third child, Ben Affleck lines up work that could keep him out of the house for months. Coincidence?

I kid. Affleck’s been plenty busy developing his formidable directing resume, and it sounds like the helmer of Gone Baby Gone and The Town is about to add Line of Sight to his credits. THR says Affleck is in negotiations to helm and star in the Joel Silver-produced action thriller for Warner Bros. The story centers on an elite band of soldiers transporting an important load of cargo while contending with a global threat. Specifics of the script - conceived by Alex Heineman and tinkered on by Halo: Reach writer Peter O’Brien - were in short supply, though the trade does say that the hook of the project is that it’s told from the first-person perspective of one character, as a first-person-shooter video game would be told. Hey Affleck, be sure to ask The Rock how that worked for Doom.

If Affleck goes ahead with Line of Sight, he’d start it after shooting Argo, a political thriller that’s based on a true story. Set in 1979, the film explains how members of the CIA posed as Hollywood executives filming a large-scale sci-fi production in order to rescue captured U.S. diplomats in Tehran. So far Affleck has cast himself in the lead and has surrounded himself with Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Clea DuVall and Alan Arkin.

Having recently watched The Town a second time, I’m even more convinced of Affleck’s skills behind the camera. I’m glad he’s graduating beyond the mean streets of Boston, and I’m anxious to see where his storytelling interests take him. I’m hesitant about the first-person-shooter concept for Line of Sight, but a lot can change between now and then, so we’ll wait and see what develops.