Keeper Of The Lost Cities Movie Updates: Is The Ben Affleck Film Happening?

Is the Ben Affleck helmed adaptation of the Keeper Of The Lost Cities fantasy novel series happening? Affleck and Matt Damon famously broke through by writing and co-starring in the Oscar-winning drama Good Will Hunting. Many years later, Affleck would also prove his might as a director, helming the acclaimed thrillers Gone Baby Gone and Argo, which later won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Throughout his career, Affleck has maintained a good split between grounded, human dramas like The Way Back and more genre material.

From the cult Dean Koontz adaptation Phantoms from 1998 to Gone Girl and his stint as Batman in the DCEU – which he’s set to reprise at least one more time with the upcoming Flash movie – he’s not averse to more pulpy material. He hasn’t really gotten a chance to explore this side as a director, however, though he was once in line to direct a movie version of Stephen King’s epic The Stand. He was also, famously, set to write and direct a solo Batman movie, before his take was scrapped and Matt Reeves took the project in a new direction.

That could be set to change, as Affleck’s name is linked to a movie based on the popular Keeper Of The Lost Cities fantasy books. Here’s what we know about this adaptation thus far.

The Keeper Of The Lost Cities Story

The Keeper Of The Lost Cities series is a young novel book series created by Shannon Messenger. The first novel arrived in 2012 and follows Sophie, a psychic girl who learns from a boy named Fitz where she and her powers really come from, and she follows him into the titular Lost Cities.

The books have been published every year since 2012, though the publication date for the next novel has yet to be confirmed. The series is hugely popular and there’s plenty of material for a potential film series to mine.

Ben Affleck Was Announced As Director Of The KOTLC Movie In 2021

In early 2021, it was reported that Ben Affleck would helm and co-write a Keeper Of The Lost Cities movie, alongside screenwriter Kate Gritmon. Affleck will direct the movie for Disney, though progress on the film appears to be quite early.

No cast or release date have been confirmed, while Affleck has other directing projects in the works like a World War 2 drama called Ghost Army. Fans of the Keeper Of The Lost Cities books are excited about the planned film, however, and while Ben Affleck might not be the most obvious choice for a YA fantasy movie, he’s proven time and again he’s a great director with the right material.

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
(3484 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

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He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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