Ben Affleck Will Star in 'Gone Girl'

Ben Affleck is currently in negotiations to play the lead in the David Fincher-directed Gone Girl, based on that Gillian Flynn novel that everyone was reading last summer. Reese Witherspoon is listed as a producer on the Fox film, but it doesn't look as if she'll act in it. Big movie stars making a big movie—that's Hollywood, huh?

Ben Affleck is currently in negotiations to play the lead in the David Fincher-directed Gone Girl, based on that Gillian Flynn novel that everyone was reading last summer. Reese Witherspoon is listed as a producer on the Fox film, but it doesn't look as if she'll act in it. Big movie stars making a big movie—that's Hollywood, huh?

Affleck will play the husband whose wife mysteriously disappears on their fifth wedding anniversary. At first, he's the suspected killer. Witherspoon could feasibly play the wife, but again, it looks like she's just producing.

There are some scheduling issues to work out, as Affleck is currently set to direct Live By Night, a Warner Bros. adaptation of the Dennis Lehane novel by the same name. Variety is reporting that Gone Girl will start production in the fall, leaving Affleck to start directing Live By Night in January. So it will be a while before we see either of these movies.

Fox won the rights to Gone Girl in a bidding war last summer, for a cool seven figures. The novel has sold more than 2 million copies.