Ben Affleck has dropped out of the Netflix thriller ‘Triple Frontier’.
The 44-year-old actor had been eyed for a leading role in the movie after Tom Hardy and Channing Tatum left the production due to scheduling conflicts, according to Variety.
The pair were supposed to start shooting the thriller in May but have now walked away and the future of the film is now in doubt as studio Paramount have axed it from their slate and Affleck was rumoured to be on board.
Deadline reported in April, director J.C. Chandor had rewritten Mark Boal’s scripts but his stars weren’t keen on the changes and Hardy in particular had requested extensive further rewrites.
And Paramount declined to move forward as they were making the movie on a tight budget and didn’t want to have to finance extensive changes because of "creative differences".
The studio also let go of the film as it had been brought in by Brad Grey, but recent executive changes mean he is no longer with Paramount.
‘Triple Frontier’, which was also due to star Mahershala Ali and Adria Arjona, then moved to Netflix.
Not much is known about the film at the time except it is an action-adventure story set in the border zone between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil.
It’s not the first time the movie has had a reshuffle – Katherine Bigelow was originally attached to direct, with the likes of Tom Hanks, Will Smith and Johnny Depp circled to star but it failed to materialise.
Charles Roven and Alex Gartner of Atlas Entertainment are producing the movie with Boal, Bigelow, Stephen Jones, Neil Dodson and Anna Gerb as executive producers.
Affleck recently stepped down as director of ‘The Batman’ – the character he portrays in the DC Extended Universe – to concentrate on giving the role of The Dark Knight the "passion" it deserves.
He has portrayed The Caped Crusader – who first appeared in Detective Comics issue 27 in print – in ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’, before making a cameo in ‘Suicide Squad’ and he will next be seen in ‘Justice League’, which is released this November.