How ironic that the casting of Casey Affleck was buried amongst all the reports that his brother Ben would be re-teaming with Matt Damon on Warner Bros‘ Whitey Bulger film. The severely underrated and underutilized thespian has carved out his own brand of success in the shadow of Ben and Matt, which was exemplified by his Best Supporting Actor nom at the 2007 Oscars for his performance as the titular Robert Ford in Andrew Dominik‘s ‘The Assassination Of Jesse James.’
We couldn’t be more pleased about his addition to the “Good Will Hunting” reunion, and are now even more excited as Showbiz411 reports that the actor will play “The Corrupt Midget” aka William, the brother of mobster “Whitey” Bulger, who was a renowned politician in Boston who even held the role of the President of the Massachusetts Senate at one point.
Things turned sour for Whitey, and the story got interesting for William when he was caught going to an arranged location to speak to his brother on an untapped line. Despite pleading his innocence at a House of Representatives committee, the damage was already done and he was soon replaced by Mitt Romney. William Bulger’s role in brother Whitey’s dealings throughout his political career remains a point of conjecture today — suffice to say, this story is one ripe for adaptation with scribe Terence Winter (“The Sopranos,” “Boardwalk Empire“) surely licking his lips at the prospect of turning it into a film for the Affleck/Damon bromance to tackle.
Now, the bad news? This film doesn’t seem to be something on either party’s immediate schedule, as they both have their own individual directorial projects in the way: “Argo” for Affleck (the Ben kind) and the “Erin Brokovich”-esque flick with John Krasinski for Damon. The duo also have the New York Yankees wife swap film “The Trade” somewhere on the horizon, though legal wranglings have tied it up for the moment. Casey Affleck, meanwhile, has a role in “Tower Heist” coming up as well as Alex Proyas‘ “Paradise Lost,” and is still kind of catching up after losing a chunk of time on his resume with the Joaquin Phoenix mock-doc “I’m Still Here.”
