Ben Affleck's new film as a director has had its release date pushed forward, in what is an unusual move for a studio. 

Live By Night is a prohibition era drama starring Affleck, Zoe Saldana, Sienna Miller, Brendan Gleeson, Elle Fanning and Chris Cooper about a cop's son who becomes embroiled in the criminal world. Affleck worked with novelist and screenwriter Dennis Lehane (Shutter Island, Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River) on the film that studio Warner Bros. are extremely enthusiastic about.

'Night' will get an awards season run at the end of December and then go wide in the same release slot as the insanely successful American Sniper mid-January. Affleck also has the Gavin O'Conner directed The Accountant due in October.

Warner are currently battling a tsunami of bad reviews and buzz with Batman V Superman and Suicide Squad. Affleck has proven to be a superb director and a well-received "esteem film" could only curtail that negative buzz ahead of the extremely expensive Justice League release.

Regardless, we're always excited to see him direct a film. While Argo won the Best Picture Oscar, for us Gone Baby Gone is a criminally overlooked modern classic.

Via DarkHorizons