Ben Affleck makes a change in casting in Netflix's 'Animals'

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have done some great work together. That might hold true when Netflix releases RIP later this year. But another project involving Affleck and Damon has gone a bit awry.

The film is called Animals, with a screenplay penned by Billy Ray (who also wrote Captain Phillips and The Hunger Games) and Connor McIntyre, and Damon was set to star while Affleck directed. The start date for filming got pushed back, though, and other projects for each of Affleck and Damon forced a change in roles.

Damon had to bow out of Animals completely as he would soon be filming in Christopher Nolan's new film, The Odyssey, and that made his availability for Animals impossible. Affleck made the decision to not only keep directing the Netflix project, but to take over the featured role vacated by Damon as well.

Ben Affleck makes a change to the casting list of Netflix project Animals

By the way, if you are wondering if Nolan is trying his hand at the Homer tale, he is. There is no borrowing of the name only. The flick will follow the story of Odysseus' journey home from the Trojan War. The cast is amazing. Others involved besides Damon include Tom Holland, Charlize Theron, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, and Anne Hathaway.

As for Animals, now that Damon is not attached, the film will star Gillian Anderson. Very few plot points are known, though the description of the film via IMDB reads, "Desperate to pay their son's ransom, a mayoral candidate and his wife resort to extreme measures, revealing dark secrets they never intended to bring to light."

Production is expected to start in the spring, but there is no timeline for when the film will be released on Netflix. There is a decent chance that does not occur until middle-to-late 2026, if not beyond. Assuming there is a year of production, we might be looking at 2027.

If you are wondering about the Damon-Affleck project RIP, expected to be released in the fourth quarter of this year, the movie is about a group of Miami police officers who discover a huge stash of money but are distrustful of outsiders who might be trying to make the money their own (we assume).

The cast includes Damon and Affleck, but also Kyle Chandler, Steven Yeun, and Catalina Sandino Moreno. Sounds like a fun watch.

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