It’s official:Ben Affleckis back in the Oscar race. Four years after Affleck’s third directorial feature,Argo, barreled through awards season only to see Affleck be left out of the Best Director Oscar race, he’s firmly back in the fray with the Prohibition-era crime thrillerLive by Night. The film was originally intended to start production not too long afterArgowon Best Picture, but then the prospect of working withDavid FincheronGone Girlpushed the start date back a bit,Batman v Supermanpushed it backa lot, and Affleck got one more acting gig in withThe Accountantbefore finally turning his attention to rolling cameras onLive by Night.
Warner Bros. first set this film for release in the fall of 2017, butthis summer the studio moved it up to January 2017. Pretty much everyone knew this meantLive by Nightwould get an Oscar-qualifying release at the end of December, but WB held firm, maintaining the film’s release date was January 13th. Now, the studio has undone the worst kept secret of this awards season, asLive by Nightwill officially get a limited release on December 25th before going wide on January 13th, making it eligible to compete in this year’s Oscar race.
Based on theDennis Lehanenovel of the same name, the filmtakes place during Prohibitionand stars Affleck as Joe Coughlin, the prodigal son of a Boston police captain who works his way up from bootlegger to notorious Florida gangster. Affleck adapted the screenplay himself, and recruited Oscar-winningThe Hateful EightandThe AviatorcinematographerRobert Richardsonto pull DP duties, so this thing has prestige to spare.
Warner Bros. doesn’t really have an Oscar contender this year beyondClint Eastwood’sSully, so one imagines they wereverykeen on gettingLive by Nightready in time for release. This isn’t exactly a new notion—Martin Scorseseis still working to finishSilencewhile Paramount is readying that film’s December release—but it’s certainly a different route thanArgotook, which debuted on the fall film festival circuit in September and carried that momentum through to the Oscar ceremony.
Will Affleck land a Best Director nomination this time around? Well we’ll have to see if the movie’s any good first, but it’s a crowded field this year with folks like Scorsese,La La Land’sDamien Chazelle, andBilly Lynn’s Long Halfitme Walk’sAng Leein the mix. For now, only one thing is certain: Affleck andLive by Nightwillofficiallybe contenders in the upcoming awards fray.
