Fox has dated Ridley Scott’s ‘The Last Duel’ — starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck — for limited release on Dec. 25, 2020. The revenge tale will open wide on Jan. 8, 2021.
Set in 14th century, “The Last Duel” is about a woman who claims she’s been raped by her husband’s best friend. But when no one believes her accusation, her husband challenges his friend to a duel, the last legally sanctioned duel in the country’s history.
Jodi Comer, who recently won the Emmy for Best Actress in a Drama for “Killing Eve,” will play the female lead. Damon and Affleck will portray the dueling friends.
Damon and Affleck are reuniting to write the script along with Nicole Holofcener, an Oscar nominee for “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” They’ll base the script off of the non-fiction book “The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal and Trial by Combat in Medieval France” by Eric Jager.
Damon and Affleck’s Pearl Street Productions are also producing the project alongside Scott Free Productions. Scott last directed the story of the J. Paul Getty family kidnapping “All the Money in the World” from 2017.
The project was previously announced but the studio confirmed it was greenlit Friday.
Disney, which acquired Fox earlier this year, also dated Ben Affleck thriller “Deep Water” for Nov. 13, 2020.