Miramax sets Affleck in ‘Arizona’

Way before Russia’s newspaper reporters started dwindling in numbers, there is the story of one Don Bolles who made enemies with people sitting in positions of power. Miramax is looking to set the director in Ben Affleck to a storyline set circa 1976, when Bolles was a reporter for the Arizona Republic looking into political corruption and the convergence of New York, Chicago and Detroit mobsters in Phoenix. When lured to a downtown hotel by a source who didn’t show up, Bolles was blown up in his car. He died days later.

Sheldon Turner is on board to write the screenplay for Sean Bailey who is producing while Cori Stevens is executive producing.

I expect the screenplay won’t include the après circumstances of the reporter’s legacy – THR mentions that the group of elite national journalists that Bolles had been trying to organize at the time, Investigative Reporters and Editors, responded to the murder by convening dozens of investigative reporters in Phoenix from 23 different newspapers and launching an unprecedented crusade to finish Bolles’ work. Although the result involved 40 articles exposing corruption in the state, many criticized the effort as vigilantism, including former presidential candidate and Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater.

Prince of Thieves has been pegged as Affleck‘s second job as a director.