Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s friendship that goes beyond cinema

They have been friends since time immemorial. They acted together, wrote together, produced together and last year Ben Affleck AND Matt Damonit’s about them, they acted airthe film about Nike’s contract with Michael Jordan directed by Jennifer Lopez’s husband.

Well, the winners of the Oscar for Best Screenplay for In search of destiny They reunite once again, this time for animalsa new crime thriller Netflix just purchased. Affleck will direct, with Damon in the lead role, but they will not co-write the screenplay, which will be written by Connor McIntyre and Billy Ray (The case of Richard Jewellby Clint Eastwood).

According to what they said on several occasions, before their stardom, they met when Ben was eight and Matt was 10. The two lived a few blocks apart in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts. They both liked basketball and acting. Plus, they ended up going to the same high school.

Damon remembers that it all started when Ben defended him from a fight with an older boy at school. “I remember it was a great moment. He put himself in a situation that was really bad for me. “This is a good friend,” he said.

While in high school, they traveled together to audition. That’s how they got a few separate opportunities, until they eventually worked together The field of dreamsthe film with Kevin Costner nominated for an Oscar, as extras.

One directs, the other acts

Affleck will remain behind the camera animalsunlike his previous collaboration with Damon, air, from Amazon Studios, in which Luciana Barroso di Salta’s husband played Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro, alongside Affleck in a supporting role as Nike founder Phil Knight. The same as airAffleck and Damon are producing the project with Dani Bernfeld through their company Artists Equity, which they founded in 2022 with the intention of sharing the profits not only with their fellow actors, but also with the technical team.

Plot details are scarce, but it is known that the story will focus on a kidnapping.

Affleck and Damon later became closer friends in high school and collaborated as screenwriters In search of destiny (1997), which won him the Oscar for best original screenplay.

The two worked together on the series Greenlight Project for HBO in the early 2000s, and starred in a few films for Kevin Smith (Dogmasince 1999, Jay and Silent Bob react(2001), but they didn’t collaborate creatively on a film again until Ridley Scott’s drama The last duel (2021), which they wrote with Nicole Holofcener. Damon also had a starring role in that film, with Affleck in a supporting performance, just like in Air.

AND air It marked Affleck’s first time directing Damon, which initially intimidated the director. “Before we started shooting, I thought, ‘Matt has worked with Spielberg, Scorsese, the Coen brothers,’” Affleck said. “So now, in your mind, you’re going to compare me to these other experiences… I remember the director of photography, Bob Richardson, approached me after the third or fourth day. And he said, “I think Matt trusts you now.” And I said, “I think so too.” “I felt a kind of professional respect there that really meant a lot to me.”