What Project Should Acclaimed Director Ben Affleck Do Next?

It's a pretty good year to be Ben Affleck, considering that his second directorial effort, The Town, isn't just a box office hit, but also a dark horse for an Oscar nomination or two (we all know how much Hollywood loves to reward hyphenate actors). The last time Affleck had heat like this, he squandered it on films like Pearl Harbor and Daredevil (I won't include Armageddon here because it remains totally awesome), but which fork in the road will he take in phase two of his career? Movieline ranks his rumored options ahead.

1.) Unknown and untitled "two-hander" with Matt Damon

No matter what Ben Affleck does with his career, it will always, always, be linked to Matt Damon's. Fans of Good Will Hunting (don't pretend you aren't still out there), have been waiting for their reunion since 1998, and whatever this mystery project is should immediately shoot to the top of Affleck's Google Tasks list. The Playlist wonders whether it might be the long-rumored film The Trade, a wife-swapping drama about two former New York Yankees who exchanged spouses in the '70s. Probably not (like two dyed-in-the-wool Red Sox fans would ever play Yankees), but boys can dream.

2.) Homeland

Thank to Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, Alexander Payne, Kathryn Bigelow and Jonathan Demme, working on cable television has become the cool thing for acclaimed film directors to do. In that regard, Affleck would be wise to tackle Homeland, a terrorist drama set up at Showtime from 24 creator Howard Gordon. He's got to keep up with the cool kids, no?

3.) Tales from the Gangster Squad

Warner Bros. has apparently offered Affleck the keys to Tales from the Gangster Squad, a script about "the Los Angeles Police Department's off-the-books squad of mercenary cops who tried to chase infamous gangster Micky Cohen out of town in the forties." Sounds cool, except for the fact that you could just watch L.A. Confidental for the 70th time instead of waiting a couple of years to see it. With that genre so thoroughly nailed by Curtis Hanson (ironically in 1997, the same year that Good Will Hunting came out), why would Affleck want to tackle something like this?

· Warner Bros. Offers Ben Affleck 'Tales from the Gangster Squad' [Vulture]