REX/Shutterstock
EXCLUSIVE: The Accountant team of Ben Affleck and director Gavin OConnor are circling The Has-Been, a drama scripted by Brad Ingelsby. Im told Warner Bros is trying to make a deal on a movie that would happen on a fast track. No deals have been completed at this point.
The script by Ingelsby has drawn strong interest around town. It centers on a former basketball all-star, who has lost his wife and family foundation in a struggle with addiction. He attempts to regain his soul and salvation by becoming the coach of a disparate ethnically mixed high school basketball team at his alma mater. Affleck wants to play the former hoops star, and OConnor will direct.
The Has-Been will be produced by Affleck and Jennifer Todd, Mark Ciardi and Gordon Grey, with OConnor also expected to be involved as a producer along with the writer.
Affleck, who is currently starring in the ensemble of the JC Chandor-directed Triple Frontier for Netflix, is separately developing at Warner Bros with OConnor the sequel to The Accountant, the hit thriller in which Affleck played a forensic accountant with high functioning autism and remarkable survival skills drilled into him by an abusive father. OConnor is separately developing to direct the Suicide Squad sequel at Warner Bros. It all seems like a strong fit at Warner Bros., where Affleck most recently reprised Batman in Justice League.
Ingelsby first came on the scene when he was working for his fathers insurance business and writing on the side in Philadelphia. That was until he made a whopping spec script deal for The Low Dweller, which got Ridley Scott to direct and Leonardo DiCaprio to star. It eventually was re-titled Out of the Furnace with Scott Cooper rewriting and directing, and Christian Bale, Zoe Saldana, Casey Affleck and Woody Harrelson starred in the underrated Relativity drama. The scribe also recently wrote for Scott Free The Friend, a film based on an emotionally inspiring Esquire article. That script is out to actors now. He most recently scripted The Burning Woman, the Jake Scott-directed drama for Scott Free and Romulus that stars Christina Hendricks, Sienna Miller and Aaron Paul.
Affleck and OConnor are repped by WME. Ingelsby is repped by CAA and Energy Entertainment.
[contf] [contfnew] 
Deadline
[contfnewc] [contfnewc]
