Casey Affleck Replaces Charlie Hunnam In Star-Studded Gritty Cop Drama TRIPLE NINE

Casey Affleck (Interstellar) has taken over the lead role in John Hillcoat’s cop drama Triple Nine according to TheWrap, a role that had both Shia LaBeouf and Charlie Hunnam attached to it at one time. Hillcoat is best known for hardboiled crime thrillers Lawless and The Proposition, along with an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (a devastating realistic vision of the end of the world). Affleck has been taking some seriously awesome roles lately with films such as Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, Gone Baby Gone (directed by his brother Ben), Out of The Furnace, Ain’t Them Body Saints and The Killer Inside Me. The script comes from Matt Cook and was apart of Hollywood’s Blacklist (list of the best unproduced scripts). It sounds like the drama will be in the vein of Training Day and The Departed, but will end up more bleak and grounded knowing Hillcoat.

Story follows a group of thieves who plan to kill a young LAPD officer to divert the police away from a daring heist they’re perpetrating across town. The title “Triple Nine” refers to police code indicating that an officer needs immediate assistance. 

Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave) is looking to play a career criminal in the film, who is the mastermind behind the heist. Michael B. Jordan (Fruitvale Station) is aiming for the role of Affleck’s character’s partner, who just happens to work for the gang and wants to setup him up. Oscar winners Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained, Inglourious Basterds) and Cate Blanchete (Blue Jasmine) are also being courted for roles, but it will depended on their schedules. Ejiofor and Blanchete (also possibly Jordan) are looking like they will be landing Oscar nominations this awards season, so having them on board could help the project get awards buzz.

Legendary Australian musician-writer Nick Cave (of Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds) has written scripts for Hillcoat in the past along with scoring his movies, ThePlaylist reports that Cave will provide the score for Triple Nine.

SOURCE: THEWRAP