Ben Affleck has landed his next directing gig as Variety reports he’ll star and direct the WWII film Ghost Army for Universal Pictures. The script is based on the novel The Ghost Army of World War II by Rick Beyer and Elizabeth Sayles was originally penned by Shazam! screenwriter Henry Gayden and the latest draft from True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto.
It certainly has an interesting hook.
The film tells the true story of a squadron of recruits from art schools, ad agencies and other creative businesses who were tasked with fooling the Nazis into thinking the U.S. had larger troop numbers than it actually did. The book follows a group of young GIs, including fashion designer Bill Blass, painter Ellsworth Kelly, artist Arthur Singer, photographer Art Kane, and others, who conduct a secret mission. Their job was to create a traveling road show of deception, armed with inflatable tanks and sound-effects records.
Ghost Army will be an interesting true-life angle from WWII and should give Affleck a project similar to Argo. While Ben’s Live By Night was a decent effort it wasn’t the caliber of filmmaking many had been expecting as a follow up to Argo. There is a chance Ghost Army might be slightly more in his wheelhouse.
However, it’s currently unknown when they plan to put the film into production and Universal hasn’t given the film an official release date.
SOURCE: VARIETY
