According to Variety, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker star Adam Driver is in talks to co-star alongside Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Killing Eve actress Jodie Comer in Ridley Scott’s period drama The Last Duel. The trade notes that Driver will assume the role Affleck originally intended to play, with Affleck now appearing in a supporting role.
Based on the book The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in Medieval France by Eric Jager, the novel takes place in 1386 and tells the story a Norman knight who returns from war to find his wife accusing his old friend of raping her. The story sees the French court decide the fate of the accusation with trial by combat between the pair. Comer will play the wife with Damon and Driver filling the two lead male roles. Damon and Affleck also co-wrote the script with Nicole Holofcener, the first collaboration between the pair since the Academy Award winning Good Will Hunting.
One wrinkle in the film’s development is that the script was originally acquired by Fox, now owned by Disney. It hasn’t yet been officially greenlit by the studio, and given the subject matter it remains to be seen if Disney will follow-through with the feature film and release it under their 20th Century Fox banner or if they will pass on the project altogether. It was previously reported that other studios are eager to snatch it up should that arise.
The Last Duel would mark the second collaboration between Damon and Scott, who previously worked on The Martian together. Scott and Kevin Walsh will produce alongside Damon and Affleck.
