There’s a lot of Affleck buzz going around, with news of Ben dawning the bat cape in the upcoming Superman/Batman film, but rather than add to the hilarious Armchair Casting Agents’ opinions, we thought we’d bring some news of another Affleck. Little brother Casey, who’s perhaps best known for his role in ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’ as the aforementioned titular coward, is signed on to star in an upcoming sci-fi flick about the ethical ramifications of accidental doppelgangers.
Casey recently earned acclaim at Sundance for his starring role in ‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’ written and directed by David Lowery, which just enjoyed a theatrical release last weekend. The two apparently worked so well together in the western romance gone wrong that Lowery decided to take Affleck along again as he tries his hand at a very different genre. ‘To Be Two’ will be an adaptation of ‘To Be Two or Not to Be,’ a short story by psychologist Paul Broks. The story itself is nothing new to the science-fiction world, having been compared to ‘Looper‘ but sounding to me a lot more like the hugely underrated sci-fi masterpiece ‘The Prestige.’
‘To Be Two’ takes place in a world where people can digitally transport themselves to Mars, leaving their Earth version to be vaporized as they continue to exist on our neighbor planet. When the machine malfunctions and stops disintegrating the “original,” philosophical questions are raised as to which is the true version, and what should the human race’s moral and ethical reaction be to such an event? Is it wrong for authorities to hunt down the original, ‘Looper’-style? Should the Mars version support that extermination?
The short story comes from a collection of nonfiction case studies by neurophysicist Paul Broks called ‘Into the Silent Land: Travels in Neuropsychology,’ and although much of it is based on real people, it smacks of the same science-fiction genius made popular by Philip K. Dick who simultaneously makes us yearn for advancements in technology and breaks our heart at the potential resultant fallout. His specialty is analyzing the relationship between one’s personality and the physiological structure of the brain.
Movies like this are almost always well-received by the science-fiction community, although it can be difficult to translate a character’s innermost thoughts on the page to an actor’s emotions on screen without copping an annoying voice-over. But it certainly can be done. With David Lowery set to write and direct again, it seems the Hollywood community has high hopes.
Source: Giant Freakin Robot
