EXCLUSIVE: Here is a package that certainly will heat up the summer market. Deadline is hearing that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are attached to star in the thriller RIP, with Joe Carnahan writing and directing. Affleck and Damon’s company Artists Equity is producing with a plan to shoot this fall.
Reps for Artists Equity could not be reached for comment.
Plot details are being kept under wraps other than it being described as a crime thriller. The project is expected to find a distributor soon as interest has been drawn from theatrical and streaming buyers.
Since launching Artists Equity in November 2022, Damon and Affleck have released its first film, Air, in spring 2023 to glowing reviews and a solid box office performance. Since then, the studio has produced the documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told for Amazon MGM Studios and Small Things Like These, which opened this year’s Berlin Film Festival and won the Silver Bear for supporting actress Emily Watson.
As for RIP, the package came together pretty quickly in recent weeks. Affleck and Damon were looking for a new project under the company banner as Affleck was finishing up production on his sequel to The Accountant. The two tried to do another crime thriller, Animals, at the top of the year, but scheduling with The Accountant 2 couldn’t be worked out and that was put on pause.
No stranger to crime thrillers, Carnahan has made a name for himself over the years with such films as Narc and Smokin’ Aces (which Affleck also appeared in), and audiences can expect similar fireworks on this project given the talent already involved.
Affleck and Damon are repped by WME. Carnahan is repped by CAA.