Boston Magazine
By Matt Juul
September 9, 2016
The first teaser trailer for Ben Affleck’s upcoming Boston-set movie Live by Night hit the web on Thursday.
Although we’ve seen the actor portray a Bay State gangster before in The Town, his latest directorial effort will put a Prohibition era spin on Boston crime. Affleck plays the son of a police officer named Joe Coughlin who’s forced out of town and ends up becoming an outlaw in Florida during the 1920s.
While the trailer for Live by Night definitely looks intense, it’s hard not to laugh at Affleck’s ridiculous fedora.
Based on the book by author Dennis Lehane, Live by Night filmed in the Boston area, including Lawrence, last fall. The movie is Affleck’s second project based on a Lehane novel after directing 2007’s Gone Baby Gone.
The film—which also stars Sienna Miller, Zoe Saldana, Chris Cooper, Chris Messina, Brendan Gleeson, and Elle Fanning—is Affleck’s first time in the director’s chair for a film following his Academy Award-winning turn in Argo.
Originally set to hit theaters in October of next year, Warner Bros. recently moved up the release date for Live by Night to January 13, 2017. The movie will now be going head-to-head with a number of films with Boston ties this awards season, including Casey Affleck’s Manchester by the Sea and Mark Wahlberg’s Patriots Day.
Check out the first trailer for Live by Night above.