LOS ANGELES — Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are collaborating on a film about notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, GQ reported Monday.
Bulger, 82, was accused of 19 murders in Boston dating back to the 1970s. He and his 60-year-old girlfriend Catherine Greig went into hiding in 1994. They moved to Santa Monica, Calif., in 1998 and were arrested last June.
Affleck will direct the as-yet-untitled film, with Damon starring as Bulger. “The Sopranos” and “Boardwalk Empire” scribe Terrence Winter is writing the screenplay, GQ reported.
Warner Bros. Pictures will release the film, Damon said.
At least three other movie projects about Bulger are in development, including one from “The Departed” producer Graham King and one from “Black Swan” producer Brian Oliver based on the book “Black Mass” by Boston Globe reporters Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill.
Another, an adaptation of Edward MacKenzie and Phyllis Karas’ book “Street Soldier: My Life as an Enforcer for Whitey Bulger and the Boston Irish Mob” has “Twilight Saga” actor Peter Facinelli attached as producer.
“The sooner it’s announced the better,” Damon said of his Bulger project with Affleck, “just because everyone else will back off, hopefully.”