There’s a new Affleck trailer up, and while it’s not as exciting as the one for The Town, it’s certainly compelling. First of all, the cast for The Company Men includes Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Craig T. “Coach” Nelson, Rosemarie DeWitt (from Mad Men and Rachel Getting Married), Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, and Kingston’s own Chris Cooper. Hot damn!

This trailer has many highlights. Chief among them is this fact: the movie includes a scene in which Affleck, recently fired from a big corporation job, brings coffee for his colleagues on a construction site. Allow me to repeat that: In this movie, Ben Affleck’s character works on a construction site, and furthermore, in this movie, Ben Affleck brings coffee for others. Oh. My. God.

1997

2010

Another notable similarity to our Favorite Movie Of All Time: This movie has one egregiously terrible Boston accent. One might even go so far that, judging from the way he says “cahptenter” as if Katharine Hepburn on This Old House, Kevin Costner is the new Robin Williams. Congratulations, Costner; it looks like you’ve really out-Costnered yourself this time.

A one square mile neighborhood called… Charlestown!!

I incidentally did a quick Google search of Charlestown and “bank robberies” and came up with this article about a series of robberies in Charleston, Summerville, and Dorchester. Apparently there’s a parallel universe of Boston neighborhoods in South Carolina, slightly misspelled. I wonder if they each have a Boylston Street?

Read all about the filming of The Town in Harvard Square, right here in a Blog Will Hunting post from last winter.

Slate recently had an article on”10 wildly ambitious—or just wildly misguided—movie projects that were doomed by financial difficulties, casting issues, their very premise, or, commonly enough, all three,” including a version of The Lord of the Rings starring the Beatles.

Nestled in at number eight is the following, a film project I had not heard of until now. Hey, at least it wasn’t a musical.

Half Way House
After the triumph of Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck found plenty of further success in acting, producing, and, in Affleck’s case, directing, but they have yet to film another Damon-Affleck script. Just months after GWH‘s release, they already had a project set up with Castle Rock. Affleck described Half Way House as an ensemble piece set in a home for the mentally impaired. The pair was going to play workers in the facility, at least initially. “Damon now tells Affleck he wants to play one of the retarded residents,” Variety‘s Army Archerd wrote in March 1998. “We’ve got 150 pages,” Damon told Entertainment Weekly that year, “and about five are good.” Whether he was being falsely modest or not, the film has been quietly dropped from both men’s list of future projects.

New York Magazine‘s entertainment blog Vulture has delivered some delightful Damon/Affleck material over the past few days.

At the end of March, it reports, the American Cinematheque will be honoring Matt Damon in a televised event called Hollywood Salutes Matt Damon: An American Cinematheque Tribute. On hand to salute Mr. Damon: Ben Affleck, Greg Kinnear… and Bill Clinton.

Says Vulture:

Are we crazy that this sounds totally randomly awesome? Matt Damon! Three hours (or whatever) of Hollywood saluting Matt Damon. Humble, work ethic-y Matt Damon. We can’t wait to run around asking people what they’re “doing for Matt Damon night” and if they’re going to “a Matt Damon watching party” to “play Matt Damon drinking games” (drink every time someone says “Matt Damon”!). It’s going to be so hard to get a cab on Matt Damon night, so try to leave your friend’s Matt Damon party early and just find out whether Matt Damon cried at the end later when you get home. The only thing that would make this better is if it were a surprise for Matt Damon. Or if there were an interpretive-dance number about the life and career of Matt Damon. Matt Damon!

In a separate post, Vulture unearths the following video, described as “an exciting scene from the little-known 1994 special Body to Die For: The Aaron Henry Story. Acting!”

Also: Roid rage!

So bricklaying is in their blood.  This raises the question, though: which relative is the shepherd?

The Boston Herald (Media Center) made you a handy family tree graphic — cut it out and put on your refrigerator, or tuck away in your wallet for quick and easy reference.  Also, the NEHGS put out a press release [pdf] on the matter; read the relevant excerpt below:

October 9, 2009 (Boston, MA) – Researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) recently uncovered family lines that link the Hollywood duo. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are 10th cousins, once removed. Both are decendents of William Knowlton, Jr. (1615-1655) of Ipswich, MA.

William Knowlton Jr. was born in England and arrived with his parents to the U.S. in the early 1630s. He was bricklayer by trade. William Jr.’s two children that Affleck and Damon descend from are Thomas and Mary Knowlton, born in the 1640s.

The Hollywood duo each descends from Knowlton’s two children; Affleck from Knowlton’s son Thomas, and Damon from daughter Mary. Working on the research were NEHGS staff genealogists Chris Child, who specializes in early New England and Presidential research, and Rhonda McClure, who has done genealogical research for many celebrities. Longtime NEHGS genealogist Gary Boyd Roberts also contributed to the research.

Affleck, who was born in California but grew up in Boston, is also related to 16 U.S Presidents including Barack Obama, as well as the late Princess Diana.

A couple of things to note:

1) The award is presented by the original odd couple. (I’m gonna have to say Matt Damon is the Felix to Affleck’s Oscar. Ben Affleck — so rough around the edges!!)

2) They’re with their moms!

3) Ben Affleck’s voice cracks like that of a thirteen-year-old.

4) Their competition for the award included Woody Allen, P.T. Anderson, and James L. Brooks.

5) It really reminds me of the end of the Sports Night episode “The Six Southern Gentlemen of Tennessee” in which Casey and Dan very enthusiastically thank all of the show’s crew members.

I once jokingly referred to Miramax as “the house Ben Affleck built.” That’s not true. Miramax has existed since at least 1980. (My friend recently showed me a poster for a stoner Star Wars parody Miramax released that year. Think about that. They’ve been pulling the whole “Disaster Movie” genre schtick for 30 years!) Ben Affleck didn’t show up until the later half of the mid-90′s, but he was integral in the Miramax my generation came to know. His Oscar win alongside best bud Matt Damon in 1998 gave him some “indie film street cred” that no doubt rubbed off on Shakespeare in Love. He was certainly in the thick of things when Miramax became the Oscar juggernaut it’s commonly known as today.

No matter how high his star rose, Ben always kept it real with Miramax. Which is why I was so surprised to see him stay with Miramax after the Weinsteins left.

A little background for non-movie-industry-news-nerds: Miramax was founded by Harvey and Bob Weinstein. They sold it to Disney in 1993 but stayed on board as presidents to run the ship, as they always had. So it was an accepted truth that anyone who worked with Miramax regularly did so because they wanted to work with the Weinstein brothers.

When they left and created the Weinstein Company in 2005, all the other Miramax filmmakers and go-to actors went with them. Disney was left with little more than the Miramax name, installing a new president and beginning the “New Miramax” era, with practically a whole new roster of executives and creatives. Yet Ben Affleck chose to make Gone Baby Gone at the New Miramax.

I think this was a clever PR move.

Photo by Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times

The average guy on the street who doesn’t read way too many movie blogs has no idea who runs Miramax. As far as the general population goes, Miramax was still Miramax. And actors, being public faces, come to be associated with brands in the public’s mind. In this case, the association goes something like this: “Ben Affleck + Miramax = some pretty good movies like Good Will Hunting(!).”

Ben used this to his advantage by allying himself with the Miramax name and not the Weinstein brothers. On the mean, indie film streets “Miramax presents a Ben Affleck film” sounds way more impressive than “The Weinstein Company presents a Ben Affleck film.” One reminds me of Good Will Hunting, and that Ben Affleck was once more than a headliner for mindless blockbusters and tabloids. It makes me root for the guy and probably give his movie a chance.

In January 2010, despite major Oscar wins under the new regime, Disney closed the doors on Miramax. The fate of the label remains a mystery, with rumors swirling that the Weinsteins would like to buy it back. But with Miramax off the table for the foreseeable future, I can’t help but wonder: what will Ben Affleck do when he needs to remind people of his indie street cred?

Turns out the upcoming Damon-Affleck project will likely be The Trade, the story of two New York Yankees in the seventies who swapped wives.  The blogosphere is all atwitter with the notion that we may soon see the Boston duo in pinstripes.

You can thank the crackerjack photoshop staff at the MTV Movie Blog for the image above.

Thanks to Adam, for the heads up on this one.

Google image search: "Matt Ben shiny joy"

Matt ‘n’ Ben are re-forming their production company for a “first look” deal at Warner Bros. In movie lingo, “first look” refers to this exchange: “First, look – Ben, I wish you hadn’t sold my Oscar on eBay to fund Gone Baby Gone. But what the hell, let’s re-form our production company!”

Of course, I’m being unfair (and hilarious!). Affleck has become a well-respected director after Gone Baby Gone, and his next film, the highly anticipated The Town, is due in September. With his newfound clout and Damon’s ongoing credibility as an actor and a box-office draw, the timing for this thing seems right. Ready those Gerry 2 pitches …. now.

Howard Zinn (1922-2010)

Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose book “A People’s History of the United States” became a million-selling leftist alternative to mainstream texts, died Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 87 and lived in Auburndale, Mass.

… “A People’s History” had some famous admirers, including the actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The two grew up near Professor Zinn, were family friends and gave the book a plug in their Academy Award-winning screenplay for “Good Will Hunting.”

As a math genius once said about Zinn’s People’s History of the United States, that book “will knock you on your ass.”

Scenes from the movie The Social Network, the story of the creation of Facebook in a college dorm room, were filmed in various locations throughout Cambridge—although apparently the Harvard University campus won’t have a starring role in this film, as Johns Hopkins has been cast instead. And alas, Justin Timberlake did not grace the streets of our fair city: locals were disappointed to learn that his face would be inserted post-production via CGI in scenes recently filmed on the Charles River.

In other movie news, Ben Affleck recently returned to his native turf to star and direct in The Town, a thriller based on the novel Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan and adapted for the screen by Affleck himself (perhaps an argument against those who seek to discount his contributions to the Good Will Hunting screenplay?)

Ben Affleck and John Hamm on the set of The Town in Harvard Square.

Walking to work through the production crews, camera equipment and massive coils of cables during a recent filming brought to my mind a favorite scene in Good Will Hunting and a fixture that will be familiar to anyone who regularly passes through Harvard Square.

Spare Change News is a local alternative newspaper here in Cambridge that is produced and sold by homeless and formerly homeless volunteers. Locals will be familiar with the vendors who take up posts on the city streets to sell the paper to passersby.

One such post is located directly in front of the large Au Bon Pain situated in the middle of the Square. This just happens to be the location of a key scene from the movie in which we learn that, although he can’t paint, play music, or hit a homerun out of Fenway, when it came to math, Will could always “just play.”

Sure enough, in the background of this scene, you can see Spare Change News Guy.

(True Cantabrigians may also notice the incongruity between the coffee cups from Peet’s coffee, and the location, Au Bon Pain.)

It’s a great tribute to the city of Cambridge that so much of it is still recognizable and intact. It’s one of the things I love most about this movie.

I was reminded of this lately as I passed crews from The Town filming in almost the same location. Spare Change News Guy was nearby, as always. I couldn’t help but wonder whether he will be making what promises to be (as far as I know, anyway) his second major film role. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Update: I was mortified to learn that there was a mistake in my inaugural Blog Will Hunting post!

Peet’s Coffee was served at Au Bon Pain locations between 1995-1998, so there were actually no incongruities in that scene. Obviously, I’m not a true Cantabrigian (full disclosure: I’m actually from Rhode Island.)

I stand corrected.

Katherine once gave a high school film studies class presentation on GWH and showed a scene from the movie on a VHS cassette tape from the library. However, instead of the scene in the NSA office, she inadvertently showed the end of the masturbation scene.

This is Katherine’s inaugural Blog Will Hunting contribution.

Ben Affleck as a T employee.

Thanks to Katherine for submitting a photo of Ben Affleck dressed as a T employee, in a new film shooting in Boston.  Unfortunately she could not illuminate what the deal was with “the state of his belt/pants,” responding “I guess we’ll have to see the movie.”

Will Affleck be texting while operating the train?  Will he save someone’s foot?  Will he yell at me for not paying my T fare even though I already paid but stepped out of the crowded car to let people out?  We shall see.

Thanks to Dave, for alerting us that “Matt Damon is NOT dead,” which we didn’t know was a possibility.  A few weeks ago the internet went crazy with the rumor he had died in the desert or something.  Associated Content cleared up the confusion, stating, “Academy Award-winning actor Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting) is not dead, but, rather, is in Venice, Italy, attending the Venice Film Festival.” 

Bollywood 91, which looks like a fake website anyway, reported a very detailed account:

Matt Damon, an American actor and philanthropist, was found dead in California’s Palo Verde mountain area on Wednesday. He was 38.

According to TMZ’s web site, Damon, who was officially reported missing Friday, was on a camping trip. His body was found by an Imperial County Sheriff’s Department deputy on Wednesday.

The cause of death is unknown.

According to TMZ.com on Wednesday, law enforcement headed into the desert near San Diego on Tuesday. That day, TMZ.com reported, “Damon sent a text message to a friend that he was out of water and needed help. There was a massive search that ended abruptly.”

On his personal blog, Damon wrote last month he was going to the desert because of his friends talking about “treasure hunting and lost gold, and my own insatiable appetite for adventure and exploration . . . I plan on going so deep into the desert, that any failure of my equipment could cost me my life.”

Later on, however, he downplayed such fears, writing, “It seems some websites have reported on the story, posting up that I might die out in the desert, or that it might be my greatest opponent yet, etc. Come on guys. It’s really common down in southern California to go out to the off-road recreation areas in the desert about an hour away from L.A. and San Diego. So my plan is to go out to the desert, do some camping, ride the motorcycle, and shoot some guns. Sounds like a lot of fun to me. A lot of people do it. This isn’t a version of Into the Wild. I’m not going out into the desert with a pair of shorts and a bowie knife to try to live off the land. I’m going fully geared up, and I’m planning on having some fun.”

Damon won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his screenwriting in Good Will Hunting, and was nominated for his lead performance in the same film. Growing steadily in popularity from the 1997 film, he was since matched up with A-list actors in mainstream films, and today is rated among the top actors in Hollywood.

Damons agent, John Hayner, said his client led a simple life and always had an appreciation for the outdoors.

“He was always planning on going on some sort of adventure,” Hayner told TMZ.com. “And his my mom got scared and said ‘You’re moving with your auntie and your uncle in Bel-Air.’ I whistled for a cab and when it came near the license plate said “Fresh” and there were dice in the mirror. If anything I could say that this cab was rare but I thought, naw, forget it, yo holmes to Bel-Air. I pulled up to the house about seven or eight and said to the cabbie “Yo holmes smell ya later.” Looked at my kingdom, I was finally there, to sit on my throne as the prince of Bel-Air.”

Apparently no one who believed this report read the last paragraph.  Though I will now be using the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song lyrics in the place of lorem ipsum text for all future text-filler.

Thanks to Heather for forwarding the press release that Affleck and company would be shooting a scene in Harvard Square.  We thought it would cite exciting opportunities to be an extra or watch the magic happen, but apparently it was chiefly concerned with “parking restrictions.”

We received a film schedule from the folks that are currently in production of a Warner Bros. film called *The Town*. Cambridge native Ben Affleck will direct and star in the film. The film is based on Chuck Hogan’s novel, _Prince of Thieves_, a dark, heist-romance centered around Charlestown, MA.

They will be filming on Tuesday, September 15 (6AM-8PM.) In order to facilitate their production they will be parking some equipment vehicles on streets surrounding the filming location.

Filming Location:

Grendel’s Den
89 Winthrop St

There will be parking restrictions on:

*** Tuesday, September 15 (6AM-8PM) ***

JFK St from Eliot St to Mt Auburn St (both sides)

Eliot St from Bennett St to Mt Auburn St (Winthrop St. sides)

Plympton St from Mt Auburn St to Memorial Dr (both sides)

They assured us that they will do everything they can to minimize the impact of their presence on the area.

Boston.com provided some behind-the-scenes magic of sorts.  Well, a photo.  That’s cool I guess.

The Boston-based bank robber movie “The Town’’ - which has already filmed in Charlestown, Dorchester, and Fenway Park - made its way to Harvard Square on Sept. 15. Director and star Ben Affleck and his crew descended on Winthrop Park at about 6 a.m. to film outdoor scenes in front of Grendel’s Den and UpStairs on the Square.

And thanks to everyone who urgently informed me immediately upon learning about a Zipcar-sponsored outdoor screening of Good Will Hunting.  It was in a little park birthed by the Big Dig, and in true Big Dig fashion, the screening was delayed for at least an hour and a half due to technical difficulties with an electrical problem blamed on the transit authority.

The inflatable movie screen would then begin to gradually deflate. Hey  Zipcar: It's not your fault!

As per Mike’s suggestion, Dave and I got a pizza in the North End and ate it sitting in the grass, and had a fine time despite leaving before it started… if it ever started.

Regardless, we all referred to him as “Matt Damon,” and talked about him kind of a lot — not because he was doing much of anything notable, but because we could call him “Matt Damon.” “Matt Damon almost bumped into me at the salad bar,” for instance.  It was a strange complication when we learned his actual name was Carlos.  That didn’t seem to fit.

He was good friends, it seemed, with this kid we called “Favorite Kid.” Favorite Kid was obviously everyone’s favorite kid. He always had a smile on his face, and was always at a table overstuffed with his new college friends. His dorm mates would light up when he entered the room. (Favorite Kid doesn’t fit in anywhere in the Good Will Hunting scheme of things, but is notable for simply being friends with Matt Damon.)

Driscoll Dining Hall, via Flickr

Last year Ted and I started seeing Ben Affleck at our gym, here in Cambridge.  He is a trainer, and is actually not Ben Affleck — similar to Carlos’s Matt Damon qualities, the distinct Affleck-look isn’t always obvious.  He is, for lack of a better term, “huskier” –  Ben Affleck in Good Will Hunting is to Vince Vaughn in Swingers as Ben Affleck at the gym is to Vince Vaughn in The Break-Up, but I suppose that analogy breaks down when regarding the extra poundage in The Break-Up as due to fatty-tendencies, not from being a gym trainer.

Occasionally, though, one had to do a double take, because BEN AFFLECK IS SPOTTING SOMEONE AT THE BENCH PRESS!

Somehow these Fake Celebrity interactions are much more satisfying than actual celebrity run-ins.  (Okay, I made eye-contact with Jerry O’Connell at the Whitney Biennial — it’s my finest achievement and just a wonderful sentence to say; I would never say anything to discount its effect on my life.)  Anyway, the point is, Fake Celebrities don’t disappoint; they don’t make Daredevil.

Though I think we did once see Favorite Kid on campus one night, very wasted, yelling while stumbling, with not a smile on his face.  I suppose that was Favorite Kid’s Gigli.

All these Twitter posts about Boys Poker Night were actually about Damon and Affleck playing poker. Like, with Brad Garrett. 140 characters, your tendency to lack clarity strikes again!

Boys Playing Poker is a stupid name for a movie anyway. It’s no “Rounders”.

In terms of professional projects, though they’ve costarred and shared cameos in various films and collaborated as producers on different projects, Affleck and Damon haven’t been paired together on screen for five years. Affleck says the timing now feels right to re-team once again. “Supposedly we’re doing this thing next year” once their busy schedules dovetail, Affleck said. For his part, Damon has to complete three films – including a fourth turn as Jason Bourne – while Affleck, who received warm reviews for his 2007 directorial effort Gone Baby Gone, will be directing and starring in The Town, which Variety reports is an adaptation of the Chuck Hogan novel The Prince of Thieves. “Matt is always pretty busy but claiming that he’s going to try and slow it down a little bit,” says his buddy. “He doesn’t mind taking a year to wait. I would love to, it’s great, and we’re both busy. Matt lives in Miami, so it’s hard to get a chance to see him. If we work together it’s an excuse to hang out.”

So they’ve been busy. Too busy to make a movie together, apparently. This begs the question, though… not too busy for best friend surfing safari?

Actor Ben Affleck leans in to speak to players and coaches in the Boston Red Sox dugout during their baseball game against the Florida Marlins at Fenway Park in Boston Tuesday, June 16, 2009. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

But let’s step back a minute and observe how far we’ve come from Southie (and Cambridge Rindge & Latin)….

Brown-bagging it at Little League.

One of the many safe and stable realms of male bonding that Good Will Hunting establishes is baseball. This is of course a recognized Bostonian phenomenon: the Sox, the Curse, the brotherhood of “Red Sox Nation.” There is a key sequence in the film that invokes this (occasionally) unspoken bond among Bostonians — Will and his therapist’s nostalgic recollection of Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. Director Gus Van Sant intercuts archival footage, so soaked in nostalgia it has gone grainy and soiled, with the boys’ energetic reenactment of the game’s climax.

I can’t help connecting the dots from Good Will Hunting‘s grimy nostalgia for 1975 into the future to the Red Sox “Dirt Dogs,” mucked-up helmets, bunch-of-idiots, dirty-water sensibility. This aura clung to the authenticity of the true fans, sitting in the stands in rain or sleet or heartbreaking loss for decades.

That said, recent years have lent the franchise a slew of other connotations, many not in keeping with the underdog mentality so many have cheered for.

So here we are, back from 1975 and 1997, on June 16, 2009…

Affleck and Kevin Youkilis (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

How weird and false and inappropriate it is to see a dashing, cleft-chinned version of Chuckie Sullivan on Boston’s plasma screens, in Fenway’s front-row, coyly sporting a Celtics t-shirt like an expatriate with something to prove.

How strange it is to see Kevin Youkilis (his shaved head distinctive though out-of-focus) and Affleck in the same AP photograph, their worlds-colliding romantic-histories seeming so much more Hollywood than Boston. (Youk is married to former Affleck beau Ezna Sambataro. Just please, don’t call them Kevezna).

(And Ben and Youk, encountering on this public stage…. Awkward!)

There is a real cognitive dissonance in seeing Morgan in the Little League stands and then Ben at Fenway. Affleck is such Glossy Movie Star these days (but hardly even in movies people sees anymore) and it invalidates that grainy authenticity of Southie, the unrefined Morgan Sullivan, and good ole Will Hunting’s modest dream to grow up taking their kids to little league together.

Affleck’s post-GWH transformation into Tabloid Cover Boy is paralleled by the Fenway Faithful’s transformation into “Pink Hats” (as lamented by tried-and-true Sox fans).  Are we mourning the loss of authenticity?  Has the Dirty Boston in Affleck been reduced to a crisp Pink Hat? Is the Matt & Ben we-won-Oscars-for-a-middling-screenplay-but-we’re-best-friends-so-it’s-adorable fairy tale just marketing hooey?

I don’t know, but I do know that the photographer at Tuesday’s Red Sox game should have been focusing on Youk (the first-baseman! leading the team in on base percentage and helping kids and awesomeness!); not on some Supertramp fan in the front row.