Ben Affleck is acting again. He joins Mike Judge’s latest film Extract, which stares Jason Bateman as a flower extract plant owner dealing with workplace issues and a stream of bad luck, including his wife’s affair with a gigolo. No, Affleck will not be playing the gigolo, instead he’ll be playing an ambulance-chasing lawyer. With Bateman, Affleck, Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig, and Clifton Collins Jr. all part of Extract as well, it’s starting to sound a lot more like an ensemble comedy than anything purely focused on Bateman’s character. Shooting starts in Los Angeles next week and the film will be a Miramax release, meaning it will hopefully have more studio support than Judge’s other disastrous film, Idiocracy.
Clifton Collins Jr, of Traffic, Capote, and “Thief”, who was also announced today, plays a factory worker who loses a body part in a freak accident and is now due for a huge settlement. Last year Affleck showed us that he’s vastly better at directing (with Gone Baby Gone) and working behind the camera than starring in front of it, but if Judge is able to use him effectively in Extract, then it might not be so bad. Judge both wrote and is directing. The concept sounds like he’s going back to his Office Space roots and the cast sounds great as well. I’m anxious to find out more details about the story and hear whether it could be another Mike Judge classic in the makings.
PS: Nice pic I chose, I know… Ben eating a big freakin burger. Totally american… He is human, too 🙂
