People do strange things when they’re bored. One of my favorite ways to entertain myself is to try and puzzle out which Affleck will have the better legacy in fifty years. Ben Affleck is the obvious answer, of course, but he also possesses the more uneven career; it started off strong with Good Will Hunting and bottomed out in the early 2000s. For a few years there, it looked like Casey Affleck  —  with supporting roles in well-received movies like Ocean’s Eleven and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford  —  might have pulled permanently ahead of his brother.

And then Ben became a director. Both men were good in their respective roles in Gone Baby Gone, but Ben Affleck the Director has proven himself to be a bigger talent than Casey Affleck the Actor. If Casey wants to recover his lost ground, it isn’t enough just to give a strong performance in a well-reviewed movie; he’s going to need to pull a The Town and write, direct, and star in something that critics love. And according to The Hollywood Reporter (via Vulture), that is exactly what Affleck the Younger has set out to do.

Casey Affleck is now set to star and direct in Light of My Life, a film based on his own original screenplay. While not much is known about the script as of yet, The Hollywood Reporter does describe it as a survival story about a father and a daughter who get lost in the woods together. This will be the second time that Casey Affleck has served as writer-director on a movie, though his first film  —  the pseudo-documentary I’m Still Here  —  was more of a Kaufman-esque performance piece by actor Joaquin Phoenix than the type of film that truly proves a filmmaker’s worth during award season.

With Ben Affleck back down for the moment after a disastrous response to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, is there room for Casey to claw back to the top? The latter has already received plenty of award season buzz for his performance in Manchester by the Sea; our own review called his turn as handyman Lee Chandler a “remarkable performance”, so now is the time for Casey to consolidate his power while his brother is weak. One thing is for certain: the careers of Casey and Ben Affleck promise to keep me entertained for years and years to come.

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