Ben Affleck’s Thriller With Sin City Director Finally Hitting Theaters This Summer
Ben Affleck stars in Hypnotic, a supernatural thriller film Robert Rodriguez has worked on for over 20 years.
Robert Rodriguez is one of the most influential directors in all of Hollywood and influenced and collaborated with the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Antonio Banderas. While he is well known for El Mariachi and its sequel Desperado, along with Sin City, Grindhouse, and Alita: Battle Angel, he has had one particular project that has been in development hell for over 20 years and now may be finally seeing a release date. According to Deadline, the Ben Affleck-led Hypnotic will hit theaters on May 12.
The film received a warm welcome from audiences in a surprise “work in progress” screening during the SXSW film festival. The $70 million film that Rodriguez has been trying to make for the last two decades has secured a release in 2,000 theaters for the early May date, which will be the second weekend for James Gunn’s final installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3, and the following weekend it will compete with Vin Diesel’s Fast X.
The competition will mean that it may have some trouble getting huge box office numbers, but the lower budget means it won’t need that big of a return to make up the investment.
Ben Affleck plays a detective in Hypnotic who investigates cases of supernatural instances that bend reality, all of which seem to relate to his missing daughter. He gets help from a psychic and avoids a mysterious specter that believes he holds the key to his missing child. The film also stars Alice Braga (I am Legend, New Mutants, The Suicide Squad) and William Fichtner (The Longest Yard, The Dark Knight, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).
Robert Rodriguez has had a notable impact in Hollywood as he used his independent filmmaking style to bring actors like Antonio Banderas, who played his gun-slinging mariachi in his American breakthrough role in Desperado, George Clooney‘s big movie break in From Dusk Til Dawn, and Danny Trejo who appeared in both along with his portrayal of Machete in later films. He also introduced some child actors to the business when he took on Spy Kids, bringing Alexa Vega (Prada to Nada and Machete Kills) into the limelight, and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D which gave us Taylor Lautner (Twilight and Grown-Ups 2).
His most recent projects saw him directing Alita: Battle Angel for the big screen and jumping over to the Disney+ streaming platform for an episode of The Mandalorian and three episodes of The Book of Boba Fett.
Ben Affleck looks to make a comeback in Hypnotic, as he hasn’t had an easy go of it as of late as his turn as Bruce Wayne, AKA Batman, saw a divisive response in the ill-fated Snyderverse. He has also not seen a lot of box office renown as the most appreciated films he has been in have been more minor projects, like The Last Duel with Adam Driver and Matt Damon and Deep Water with Ana de Armas. With him also starring in Air this year, we may be in the beginnings of a Benaissance.
