Matt Damon and Ben Affleck get medieval in the first set photos from Ridley Scott's The Last Duel. The longtime best friends made a name for themselves when they co-wrote and starred together in 1997's Good Will Hunting, a critically-acclaimed film that went on to snag them an Oscar for their screenplay. Damon and Affleck would go on to share the screen again two years later in Kevin Smith's comedy Dogma, playing a pair of banished angels who discover a loophole that would allow them to re-enter heaven. Now, the pair are finally reuniting - both on and off-screen - for Scott's latest historical drama.
Filming on The Last Duel is currently underway in France, with Damon starring opposite Adam Driver as the 14th century knights Jean de Carrouges and Jacques Le Gris, who participated in the last officially sanctioned duel in the country after the former accused the latter of raping his wife (Killing Eve's Jodie Comer). ET has posted the first photos from the movie's set, revealing Damon and Affleck - who's playing a supporting role - in medieval getups that include chin hair, cloaks, and, in Affleck's case, shockingly blonde hair. You can check those out below and click on the embedded tweet for the full images.
The Last Duel is based on Eric Jager's book The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in Medieval France and was written by Damon, Affleck, and Nicole Holofcener (Can You Ever Forgive Me?); as Damon explained to ET, "Ben and I wrote the male perspective and Nicole wrote the female perspective". Disney and 20th Century Studios (formerly Fox) will give the film a limited run on Christmas Day before its wide release on January 8, 2021, allowing it to qualify for consideration at next year's Oscars show. The movie has already raised concerns over its approach to its timely subject matter, so it will be interesting to see how The Last Duel is received this winter. In the meantime, people online seem to be having a good time poking fun at Damon and Affleck's appearances. (No doubt, the pair will look more convincing in the actual film.)
Here's what Affleck had to say to ET, regarding The Last Duel:
I have never done medieval! It's 1386, so it is like armor and swords and stuff like that. But it was a real pleasure working with Matt and Nicole Holofcener, who wrote the script with us. [Matt and I] kept saying, 'Why have we not done this more often? We just got lucky that our schedules kind of intersected so that we had some free time to share. We got Ridley Scott directing it. And Jodie Comer's in the movie, so that's very exciting, and Adam [Driver].
Source: ET