Cinema Science

Edward Norton is now leaving State of Play too. What was going to be a reunion of sorts for Fight Club is now turning into some a weird mix of actors with Brad Pitt leaving the film late last month. Ben Affleck is now in talks to replace Norton in the Kevin Macdonald directed film and I am actually more excited about this prospect, nothing I love more than a Hollywood comeback story. With this and Gone Baby Gone Affleck is entering a much more interesting part of his career than what anybody could have anticipated.

While Universal threatened legal action with Pitt, Norton's exit has no rancor. His problem: he had committed to follow State of Play by playing the dual leads in Leaves of Grass, an independent comedy written and to be directed by Tim Blake Nelson.

Pitt’s exit, and the courtship of Russell Crowe to replace him, moved the State of Play start date from mid-November into January. That created a clash, and the studio, working with Norton's and Affleck's reps at Endeavor, worked out an exit plan.

Now it will be Affleck who plays a fast-rising politician who is caught up in a murder conspiracy. Crowe will play a journalist who leads a newspaper's investigation into the killing. He's conflicted in that he once ran the politicians campaigns, and he is now romancing his estranged wife.

Still in the cast are Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright Penn and Jason Bateman.