Stop the presses - Ben Affleck is in talks to play a lawyer!
You may say "Oh, pshaw, every Caucasian leading man plays at least three lawyers per decade!" That may be so, but unlike his prior lawyers in movies like Changing Lanes and Daredevil, this time he'd be appearing in a Mike Judge comedy called Extract rather than a dour drama. He'd be joining a cast that includes Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig and Clifton Collins Jr., and he'd be playing it in the ambulance-chaser style rather than the stalwart defender of justice mode. Bateman is the focus of the film, playing the owner of a flower extract factory whose wife is cheating on him and who's dealing with a lawsuit from Collins, who lost an appendage in an accident there and wants big bucks. It would seem that Affleck would be playing a supporting and somewhat villainous role, which suits his current career path of taking ensemble parts and things outside of the Paycheck milieu that cost him his career in the uber-big-time acting game. Even after directing the Oscar-nominated Gone Baby Gone, he's still got a bit of work to do to outrun his reputation, as evidenced by the trailer for the upcoming Role Models, which includes a young black kid telling Paul Rudd that "if you're white, you're Ben Affleck." .
