Ben Affleck is in negotiations to star in thriller Line of Sight, which will be produced by legendary action flick producer Joel Silver. Okay, so far, so good. The movie follows an elite group of commandos transporting cargo and dealing with a global threat. Thatâs kind of vanilla, but maybe theyâll make it work.
Hereâs the deal breaker: According to Variety, âOne of the conceits of the movie is that it tells the tale from a point-of-view akin to a first-person shooter game.â
The script was originally penned by F. Scott Frazier, who worked in the game industry. Peter OâBrien, who wrote Halo: Reach, recently did a re-write. See where this is going?
Just when you thought Hollywood could not screw up video games more, it cooks up a flick that borrows the look of first-person shooter, yet casts aside everything that makes FPS games funâyou know, the game part. Who the heck wants to watch a FPS?
But maybe the vanilla sounding Line of Sight needed a gimmick, and thatâs exactly what it sounds like this is. How about making one of the conceits of the movie an interesting story, sharp dialogue, and memorable characters? Just a suggestion!
Affleck is currently âin talksâ to star in this flick, and I havenât read the script. Maybe itâs greatâit doesnât sound great, but maybe it is. The hang up is using that FPS point of view; the Doom movie did that. Other, better movies like Existenz and Run Lola Run have incorporated video game elements into something fresh and originalânot simply stolen artifice.
Ben Affleck, thereâs one word of advice for this project and itâs âdonâtâ.
Ben Affleck in Talks to Direct and Star in Thriller âLine of Sightâ [THR via FSR]
(Top photo: Michel Spingler | AP)
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