Oscar winner Ben Affleck (Argo) directed and stars in the dramatic crime thriller Live by Night. Affleck also wrote the screenplay, based on the award-winning best-seller by Dennis Lehane; it marks the second collaboration for the fellow Boston natives, following the acclaimed drama Gone Baby Gone.
What you put out into this world will always come back to you, but it never comes back how you predict. Taking fatherly advice is not in Joe Coughlin’s nature. Instead, the WWI vet is a self-proclaimed anti-establishment outlaw, despite being the son of the Boston Police Deputy Superintendent. Joe’s not all bad, though; in fact, he’s not bad enough for the life he’s chosen. Unlike the gangsters he refuses to work for, he has a sense of justice and an open heart, and both work against him, leaving him vulnerable time and again—in business and love. Driven by a need to right the wrongs committed against him and those close to him, Joe heads down a dangerous path that goes against his upbringing and his moral code. Leaving the cold Boston winter behind, he and his reckless crew turn up the heat in Tampa. And while revenge may taste sweeter than the molasses that infuse every drop of hot rum he runs, Joe will learn that it comes at a price.
Live by Night is produced by Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street, Out of the Furnace) and Jennifer Davisson (The Ides of March, Orphan), under the Appian Way banner; and Ben Affleck and Jennifer Todd (Alice in Wonderland, Across the Universe) for Pearl Street Films. Chris Brigham, Dennis Lehane and Chay Carter are serving as executive producers.
Starring with Affleck are Elle Fanning (Maleficent), Brendan Gleeson (In the Heart of the Sea, the Harry Potter films), Chris Messina (Argo, The Mindy Project), Sienna Miller (American Sniper, Foxcatcher), Zoe Saldana (Guardians of the Galaxy, Avatar), and Oscar winner Chris Cooper (Adaptation, The Town).
Behind the scenes, Affleck collaborated with three-time Oscar-winning director of photography Robert Richardson (JFK, The Aviator, Hugo), Oscar-nominated production designer Jess Gonchor (True Grit, Foxcatcher), Oscar-winning editor William Goldenberg (Argo), and Oscar-nominated costume designer Jacqueline West (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Argo). The score is composed by Harry Gregson-Williams (The Martian, Gone Baby Gone).
Live By Night is currently slated for limited release in the U.S. on December 25, 2016. The film will be released worldwide beginning January 13th, 2017.