Ben Affleck To Direct Disney Movie Based On Keeper Of The Lost Cities Book

Ben Affleck will direct an adaptation of Keeper of the Lost Cities for Disney, based on the book series by Shannon Messenger. In addition to directing, Affleck is also reportedly co-writing and producing the film. Keeper of the Lost Cities follows a young girl named Sophie Foster, who is telepathic, and isolated as a result of her extraordinary powers. When she meets a young man named Fitz Vacker, Sophie learns that she has an origin and destiny in an entirely different realm than the "normal" world we know: the realm of the Lost Cities.

The eight-book Keeper of the Lost Cities series (and book "8.5" tie-in, Unlocked) have 2.5 million copies in print, was a New York Times bestseller and has been named in some pretty prestigious awards like Best Young Reader Book of 2020 (Barnes & Noble). It has made Sophie Foster one of the next big YA writer rockstars, with her book events drawing hundreds of fans. The series is not only current, it's ongoing; Foster has a ninth book in the works, which she announced in February 2020.

For Ben Affleck, few fans would expect the director of gritty crime/spy thrillers like The Town, Argo (and of course that canceled Batman movie) to take on a YA fantasy series. That said, Affleck is a father of two daughters, and it could be that like many celebrities who start families, he may want to Morph his creative portfolio into some more family-friendly. Fans will definitely be curious to see what he can do with this.

Here's the deeper breakdown on Keeper of the Lost Cities:

Twelve-year-old Sophie Foster has a secret. She's a Telepath—someone who hears the thoughts of everyone around her. It's a talent she's never known how to explain.

Everything changes the day she meets Fitz, a mysterious boy who appears out of nowhere and also reads minds. She discovers there's a place she does belong, and that staying with her family will place her in grave danger. In the blink of an eye, Sophie is forced to leave behind everything and start a new life in a place that is vastly different from anything she has ever known.

Sophie has new rules to learn and new skills to master, and not everyone is thrilled that she has come "home."
There are secrets buried deep in Sophie's memory—secrets about who she really is and why she was hidden among humans—that other people desperately want. Would even kill for.

Via Deadline