Ben Affleck Makes ‘Live By Night’ Next Film, Explains Leaving ‘Focus’

A few months ago, word came out that Ben Affleck would direct an adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s crime novel Live By Night, but it wasn’t clear exactly when he would tackle that project. In a recent interview with MTV, which mostly covered the topic of “awards season competitiveness” (conducted before Affleck was unfortunately left out of the Best Director category in this morning’s Oscar nominations), the talented writer/director/actor confirmed that Live By Night would indeed by the next movie he directs, and explains that dropping out of another film called Focus was necessary in order to make that happen. More below! For those that don’t recall, Affleck was originally in talks to star in Focus, a romantic conman movie from Crazy, Stupid, Love helmers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. Kristen Stewart signed on as the female lead, and though she’s still attached to the movie, here’s what Affleck told MTV about …