Ben Affleck and Warner Bros. may have delayed Live By Night, but the Argo director is still filling out roles in the project. Chris Messina is the latest to enter negotiations to star in the film.
Affleck is hoping to get Messina to play Joe Coughlin’s best friend, reports TheWrap. Joe is a small-time Boston gangster who moves to Tampa to establish his own criminal enterprise, but he finds out that it’s hard to stay on top.
Affleck is set to play Joe. Sienna Miller, Elle Fanning and Zoe Saldana have also been in linked to the project, which is based on the book by Dennis Lehane.
Warner Bros. pushed Live By Night back to 2017. It was supposed to come out in October 2016, but Affleck’s commitment to play Batman in DC Comics movies have made it hard for him to start production. Live By Night has been planned as his follow-up to the Oscar-winning Argo.
As for Messina, he is better known for his TV gigs, including The Mindy Project (which is now on Hulu). On the film side, he has mostly stuck to indie features like Cake, Manglehorn and Digging for Fire. However, he has worked with Affleck before, since he had a part in Argo.
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