In an age where it seems like all movies are franchises or based off of toys, there is still room for the odd original work that has movie stars involved. And The Last Duel certainly qualifies. The film has Ridley Scott looking to direct, with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon aiming to star.
And that's not all. The revenge drama also represents Damon and Affleck once again writing a script together, working with Nicole Holofcener on the adaptation of Eric Jager's book The Last Duel: A True Story Of Trial By Combat In Medieval France. For this one, the main characters are the Norman knight Jean de Carrouges and the squire Jacques Le Gris., who used to be friends. One goes to war and returns to accuse Le Gris of raping his wife Margerite de Carrouges. No one will believe the woman, and the soldier appeals to the king of France to undo a decision handed down by Count Pierre d’Anencon, which favored Le Gris. The decision handed down is that the two men fight a duel to the death. The one left alive would be declared the winner as a sign of God’s will. And if Jean de Carrouges loses, his wife will be burned at the stake for punishment for her false accusation...
Scott is pushing this one forward, and the book has been sitting at Fox for a while. The next step is seeing whether the studio's new Disney overlords want to pick up the film, but with the level of talent attached, it'll surely have no trouble finding a home elsewhere, and the other studios are eager to pick it up if the Mouse House passes. If Scott does make the film, it'll mean the 324 other projects on his to do lit will have to just go on waiting.
Affleck has Torrance and The Last Thing He Wanted on the way to cinemas, while he'll also reunite with Kevin Smith for Jay And Silent Bob Reboot. According to the movie's recent trailer, Damon is also showing up for that. He's also in Le Mans '66, out on 15 November. Holofcener has worked on TV series Mrs. Fletcher and is a producer on new indie drama Sophie Jones.