According to Deadline, the 44 year-old actor and filmmaker is in talks to both direct and play the lead in the big screen adaptation of Agatha Christie’s short story. Directed by the legendary Billy Wilder, Witness for the Prosecution starred the legendary Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester. It was nominated for six Oscars including Best Picture, Best Actor and Actress and Best Director. Affleck will also produce along with Matt Damon and Jennifer Todd, whilst Christopher Keyser will pen the screenplay. In the first of many plot twists, the suspect’s wife is called as a witness for the prosecution-as she was still married to another man upon wedding the suspect, and thus is able to testify against him.
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Affleck’s last directorial debut “Argo” was lauded by critics and won Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
For the uninitiated, Witness for the Prosecution centers on a lawyer who “represents a man accused of murdering a wealthy widow with whom she became so infatuated that she left him her estate”.
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The actor/director recently finished work on Live By Night and is now shooting Zack Snyder’s Justice League (which he’s also executive producing). He next stars in the Gavin O’Connor-directed The Accountant, which Warner Bros opens October 14.
