And welcome back Ben Affleck!

He is back to being a worthy player in this crazy business we call film, finally he is dodging (mostly) those God awful rom-coms, ditching them for serious works of cinema like his impressive directing debut GONE BABY GONE last year and his brilliant performance in HOLLYWOODLAND in 2006.

Variety today inform us he has been hired by Warner Bros. to adapt Chuck Hogan’s novel Prince of Thieves (nothing to do with Robin Hood and a dodgy English accented Kevin Costner) and then direct it under the title THE TOWN.

The movie will be set in Charlestown, Boston - the same setting as GONE BABY GONE but this time Affleck will star in the movie himself. He will play a career thief who becomes smitten by the manager of a bank, a woman of affection also for the detective closing in on him after every heist.

FATAL ATTRACTION and JACOB’S LADDER director Adrian Lyne was attached to helm originally but he has since dropped out.

This project sounds like it has real potential. Now let’s see if Affleck can direct as well as he can when he is also playing the lead role!