Ben Affleck looking to Direct AMERICAN BULLSHIT

Movie Ben Affleck by Joey Paur

Ben Affleck is currently looking for his next directing gig. The actor made his directorial debut with Gone Baby Gone, which I thought was great. He followed that up with The Town, which I thought sucked but everyone else in the world seemed to like. Now there's a chance his next film will be American Bullshit, the script of which was ranked #30 on the best unproduced screenplay Black List. 

The script was written by Eric Warren Singer, and is drama that's described as “the true story of Abscam, the FBI's 1980 undercover sting operation of Congress to root out corruption which was the brainchild of the world's greatest con man.” 

That sounds like it could be a really good movie, and I think Affleck could do a great job with developing it for the big screen. According to Deadline, "Affleck hasn’t committed, but is seriously mulling this among several projects that include The Trade, the Dave Mandel-scripted film based on the 70s wife swap of New York Yankees pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich; and Replay, a Jason Smilovic-scripted adaptation of a Ken Grimwood novel about a 43-year old radio journalist who dies, wakes up in his 18-year old body, and gets to relive his life over and over."

Personally, I think this American Bullshit movie is his best choice of the three. What do you all think?

Here is a little bit more on the FBI operation that the movie is based on, thanks to wiki:

The FBI set up "Abdul Enterprises, Ltd." in 1978. FBI employees posed as Kraim Abdul Rahman, a fictional Middle Eastern sheikh, in videotaped talks with government officials, where they offered money in return for political favors to a non-existent sheikh. A house (4407 W St. NW, Washington, D.C.), along with a yacht in Florida and hotel rooms in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, were used to set up meetings between various public officials and a mysterious Arab sheikh named "Kambir Abdul Rahman" who wanted:

  • To purchase asylum in the U.S.
  • To involve them in an investment scheme
  • To get help in getting his money out of his country

Much of the operation was directed by Melvin Weinberg, a convicted con artist, who was hired by the FBI for that purpose. It was the first major operation by the FBI to trap corrupt public officials; up until 1970 only ten members of Congress had ever been convicted of accepting bribes.

On February 2, 1980, NBC Nightly News became the first media outlet to break the story that FBI personnel were targeting members of Congress in a sting operation. The FBI had codenamed the operation "Abscam", a contraction of "Abdul scam", after the name of the company.

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