Focus, Participant Acquire Matt Damon/John Krasinski Film: Promised Land

Looks like the Matt Damon & John Krasinki film now has a title: Promised Land. Matt was initially set to direct it, but due to schedule conflicts, he’ll just star on it. Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting) is set to direct it. Here is the article from Deadline:

I’m told that Focus Features and Participant Media won a bidding battle for the untitled film that Gus Van Sant will direct with Matt Damon and John Krasinski starring, from the script those actors co-wrote. Focus and Participant are tying down the details. You’ll recall that Damon planned to make his directing debut on the film, but when his schedule made that impossible, he and producer Chris Moore brought it to their Good Will Hunting director Van Sant, who signed on. The film, which got a first draft from Dave Eggers when its title was Gold Mist, is a Capraesque tale in which Damon and Krasinski play rival corporate executives. Damon plays a sales executive who arrives in a small town only to have his whole life called into question. Moore, Damon and Krasinski will produce and production begins in April.

When Damon was directing, the film had been set up at Warner Bros through the production shingle that Damon has there with Ben Affleck. It’s a $15 million budget, and it seems better placed at Focus and Participant, which are teaming up for the first time.

Krasinski had the idea for a film that had resonance in the current climate of economic hardship caused by corporate greed. Krasinski paid Eggers out of his own pocket to write the first draft, then showed it to Damon and Moore while the latter were making The Adjustment Bureau, which starred Damon and Krasinski’s wife, Emily Blunt. Eggers was unavailable to do more work on the script, so Damon and Kraskinski rewrote it together.

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