At the end of the 2000s, Olivier Marchal was successful after “36 quai des Orfèvres” and “MR 73” and worked on his “Braquo” series. On the other side of the ocean, star Ben Affleck has just launched his directing career brilliantly with “Gone Baby Gone”. A project is proposed to him, and an improbable connection is established between the two men…
When Ben Affleck asks Olivier Marchal
Being able to associate Olivier Marchal, ex-cop-actor-screenwriter and French director, with the actor-screenwriter-director and American producer Ben Affleck, that does not happen every day. And the reason for this association, which takes us back to the end of the 2000s, is worth the detour.
The 2000s were fruitful for Olivier Marchal who, in parallel with his acting career, moved on to directing with three films: Gangsters (2002), 36 Quai des Goldsmiths (2004) and MR73 (2008). Of these three films, 36 Quai des Goldsmiths has the best career. It met with great popular success and obtained no less than eight nominations for the 2005 César. Including three “personal” for Olivier Marchal: César for Best Film, César for Best Direction and César for Best Original Screenplay. The film and its director are therefore known.
For Ben Affleck, these are more confusing years, with some successes but above all with stinging failures, in particular the infamous troubled loves which he shares the poster with his partner Jennifer Lopez, or even Daredevil. In turmoil as an actor, he pulls his head out of the water with his first production Gone Baby Gone in 2007. The film is a great critical success and allows Ben Affleck to regain some of his aura of leading man.
In 2013, his third feature film Argo gets three Oscars, including Best Picture, and brings him the consecration. Between Gone Baby Gone and Argohe also distinguished himself with a very high level thriller: The Town. A film he co-wrote, directs and in which he plays. But before directing it himself, he would have proposed the production to… Olivier Marchal. We’re not making this up, it’s the interested party himself who entrusted it to us (video below).
“Me, directing in front of him?”
It was during a meeting with Olivier Marchal, around his new film Overdose (available on the November 4, 2022 on Prime Video), that the director spoke about this abortive collaboration. At the mention of The Townwhich he classifies from the outset in “his cult films”, he then launches into an aside: “For the little story…“
“The Town” is one of my cult films. For the little story, my agent had told me that Ben Affleck was trying to contact me, because he was looking for a director to do it. And I said no because… without reading, because I don’t speak English well enough. And then Ben Affleck, for me, he’s a monster of achievement… Me, directing in front of him? He did well to do so, because the film is still a little gem.
Olivier Marchal to the rescue?
In 2008, when the project to adapt the novel The Prince of Robbers by Chuck Hogan finally gets the green light from the leaders of Warner, it is after a laborious development spanning five years. Indeed, the different versions of the scenario proposed by Peter Craig and Chuck Hogan himself do not fulfill the constraints imposed by Warner : a duration of 2 hours max and a budget of $37 million. The writers fail to “cut back” on their adaptation and Adrian Lyne, the project’s designated director, throws in the towel. That’s when the producers turn to Ben Affleck, oscar-winning screenwriter of Will Hunting and writer-director of Gone Baby Gone. The latter having been a success, with a duration of 1h49 and a budget of $19 million.
A format finally quite close to 36 Quai des Goldsmithsof a period of 1h51 and produced for a budget of 13 million euros… If Olivier Marchal is telling the truth, and there is no reason not to believe him, then we can assume that Ben Affleck was recruited for the project The Town above all for his skills as a screenwriter and its ability to propose a feasible adaptation, in addition to interpreting the main role. With an optional first view on the realization, he was therefore very well able to propose The Town to the ex-cop and French director, author of the famous 36 Quai des Goldsmiths…
