‘The Last Duel’: Ridley Scott To Direct Ben Affleck And Matt Damon In Medieval Period Piece; Nicole Holofcener Writing With Affleck & Damon
By Ben Pearson/July 22, 2019 4:00 pm EST
On one hand, there are some fun narratives going on here. Damon and Affleck, together on screen again! Damon and Affleck, co-writing another script again – and with a prominent, beloved female writer! Ridley Scott reuniting with Damon for the first time since The Martian, which was very enjoyable!
On the other hand, though…well, this story seems particularly fraught when viewed through the lens of what’s happening in the world right now. This is essentially a movie about people not believing a woman who says she was raped – something that’s still all too common. (Hey, remember when a prominent journalist became the latest woman to accuse our president of rape a few weeks ago and absolutely nothing happened?)
This movie’s subject matter could be viewed as a way for these filmmakers to comment on our current culture, but since Damon and Affleck don’t exactly have a perfect track record when it comes to their working relationships with women in Hollywood, the fact that they’re telling such a sexually-charged story will probably rub many folks the wrong way. Damon’s comments about diversity during an argument with producer Effie Brown during Project Greenlight back in 2015 haven’t been forgotten (though he later apologized), and Affleck has been accused of sexual assault on two separate occasions. Are they the right people to tell this story? I don’t know. Should Damon and Affleck not be allowed to write movies that have rape as a major plot point? I don’t think so, but I’m sure you can see why it raises a warning flag for some people. It’s a complicated conversation, but for now I’ll just leave it at this: personally, I’m way more excited about the movie knowing that Holofecener is writing the script with them than I would be otherwise.
