Piecing together reports from The Hollywood Reporter and Variety we learn Matt Damon is preparing to make is directorial debut on an untitled drama at Warner Bros. that he co-wrote with John Krasinski (“The Office”).
The plot seems to be a bit uncertain though we do know Damon will play a salesman who arrives in a small town only to have his whole life called into question. The story is said to be in the vein of Erin Brockovich and centers on a town being poisoned.
Krasinski came up with the idea and developed the concept with author Dave Eggers who wrote Away We Go for Sam Mendes, which Krasinski starred in opposite Maya Rudolph in 2009. Eggers last wrote Where the Wild Things Are.
Damon also has Father Daughter Time: A Tale of Armed Robbery and Eskimo Kisses, a script by Matthew Aldrich, lined up at Warner Bros., but it appears this new script will go first and perhaps as early as Spring 2012.
This will be the third screenplay for Damon who co-wrote and won an Oscar with Ben Affleck for their script for the 1997 Gus Van Sant-directed drama Good Will Hunting. So Damon has certainly shown talent in the past and, let’s face it, it wasn’t as if none of us saw this coming. As soon as Affleck went into directing it was only a matter of time before Damon followed suit, and I for one can’t wait to see what kind of feature he turns out.
Damon will next be seen in Cameron Crowe’s We Bought a Zoo and he supplied his voice for Happy Feet Two. Next year he has Elysium for Neill Blomkamp and along with that he’s making Liberace for HBO Films alongside Michael Douglas in the title role and director Steven Soderbergh. Other than that, he’s been working trying to setup a softball team for the Clinton Foundation, that you can see below.
