According to Deadline, Ben Affleck is getting ready to return to directing with The Big Goodbye, an adaptation of Sam Wasson’s book on making Roman Polanski’s 1974 noir classic Chinatown. Wasson’s book positions Chinatown and the story of her creation as a reflection of the end of the classic Hollywood era with freedom, rather corporations came along and homogenized everything. That means a movie version will be the kind of Old Hollywood story that Hollywood people love, giving celebrity actors a chance to play other celebrity actors, bask in their own specialty, and long for the days when moviemaking is an art was and is not a promotional tool for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Are we snarky here? We can not even tell it anymore.
Deadline says it’s unclear if Affleck will trade or just direct, but the casting for this is really the most engaging part. Chinatown star Faye Dunaway and Jack Nicholson (in his prime!), who would both be good roles for awards-hungry actors, but we are especially envious of anyone who would willingly take over the unpleasant task of playing convicted rapist Roman Polanski. Chinatown was made a few years before Polanski fled the United States, so that would not really have to be a plot point in this movie, but that should be an elephant in the room when the Polanski character is on screen, right?
If Affleck tackles it, it should be handled with extreme caution to avoid being dismissive as heavy-handed, and if he does not address it … well, we’m glad this is Ben Affleck’s problem and not our problem. Or maybe it’s not a problem at all, since cancel culture the net catch until 2018 with Polanski, 15 years after he received a standing ovation at the Oscars and 40 years after he was convicted of raping an underage girl. (This news story is an example of the use of the ‘heavy-handed’ approach.)
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