Casey Affleck Lands Lead In The Kind One

It looks like Casey Affleck has scored himself a film noir period piece! We get wind of this news thanks to the professionals at Variety:

Casey Affleck is attached to star in period noir drama “The Kind One,” based on the just-published novel by Tom Epperson. Film will reunite Affleck with “Gone Baby Gone” producer Sean Bailey, who is producing through his new Disney-based Idealogyshingle.

Story, set in the 1930s Los Angeles, centers on an amnesiac (Affleck) who finds himself working for a mobster — a sadistic killer given the nickname “the Kind One” — and falling in love with the thug’s girlfriend. Epperson will adapt his novel when the WGA strike is over.

Film Noir is a genre that I know very little about. My friend Wintle has been kind enough to suggest some films to me to me as of late. They sound fantastic and I look forward to bleak tales of tragedy and sorrow. The genre has fervent followers and it will be interesting to see how this modern film is received by them. For genre specific films, I usually try and read the thoughts of their champion scholars/enthusiasts. We can’t distribute our love equally amongst genres, and the best thoughts are always from someone who is passionate about the subject matter at hand.

It seems funny that Disney is behind this project. I was skeptical for a second; and then I remembered Old Yeller. No movie has ever disturbed me quite like Old Yeller. It was the early 1980’s, my parents rented a VCR (yes rented!) and some films. They kept saying how much we would love this movie, and we thought it was cool that they saw it as kids. Well we all know how the movie ends, and I was obliterated with a hammer of woe. I don’t think i understood death until I saw Old Yeller; that beloved golden dog had puffed up my heart so big that when he died it hurt all the more. To this day, I cannot watch the film with dry eyes.

Disney is perfect for this movie, they are bringers of sorrow and woe; no film they make will be as bleak as Old Yeller. But I am willing to see them try.