Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are coming back together for RIP, to be directed by Joe Carnahan: more on the film here.
We’ve seen Matt Damon and Ben Affleck work together plenty of times over the years, but their appearances onscreen together are set to hit double figures with RIP, an upcoming crime thriller that has just been announced. Affleck and Damon’s company, Artists Equity, is backing the project.
As it stands, we know nothing about the plot apart from that ‘crime thriller’ description. Interest is said to be there from both streamers and traditional studios. The appointment of Joe Carnahan behind the camera feels like a very good fit given that the director has history in this genre, having helmed Narc and Smokin’ Aces previously.
As mentioned (and reported by Deadline), the project is being backed by Affleck and Damon’s own production company and the philosophy behind Artists Equity is right there in the name: the company was set up to create a greater share of equity across the artists involved on a production.
The aim is to produce films that can secure a better overall deal for cast and crew in an era where streaming has raised upfront payments for industry professionals, but also largely eliminated the kind of lucrative profit participation that at one time was part and parcel of an attractive deal.
2023’s Air certainly managed to achieve that feat, with Amazon Studios reportedly paying around $130m for the film which starred Damon and Affleck, the latter also directing. Given that Air was said to have cost around $90m to produce, that’s a tidy sum that was hopefully shared with the ‘under the line’ cast and crew as Affleck and Damon promised when they launched the company.
Whether Air made Amazon all of its financial outlay back is of course difficult to quantify given that the streaming platform’s film output is tied to other elements of its business in ways we don’t really have insight into. We do know that the film made around $90m from its theatrical run before appearing on Amazon’s streaming platform.
With that in mind, it will be very interesting to see which studios and streamers are bidding for RIP, while the budget for the production could be a really important factor in determining the future success of Artists Equity’s laudable ideals.
We’ll bring you more on this one as we hear it.