Ben Affleck: He Really Wants to Direct

By Stephen M. Silverman

03/23/2005 at 09:00 AM EST

After going so far as to poke fun at his shaky movie acting career on Saturday Night Live, Ben Affleck appears to be taking a serious new step – into directing.

The Oscar-winning screenwriter, for 1997's Good Will Hunting with pal Matt Damon, has signed on to direct Gone, Baby, Gone, to be shot this fall in Affleck's native Boston for Touchstone Pictures, reports Reuters.

Based on a novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane, Gone, Baby, Gone is described as the tale of two blue-collar private detectives in Boston, Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, hired to find a missing child.

Clint Eastwood turned a previous novel by Lehane, Mystic River, into a 2003 Oscar-nominated movie

Affleck, 32, hit acting career highs with Pearl Harbor, Chasing Amy, Changing Lanes and Daredevil, but has had less luck with Gigli, Jersey Girl, Paycheck and Surviving Christmas.