Mike Binder stated that he nearly worked with Steven Spielberg on a film, but the project ended due to an alleged conflict between Spielberg and Ben Affleck.
The 2006 movie Man About Town, in which Affleck played a Hollywood agent, was written and directed by Binder. The director, however, claimed that when he first penned the screenplay, he assumed Spielberg, who had been pleased by his previous film The Upside of Anger, would helm the movie.
On Stephen Baldwin’s podcast One Bad Movie, Binder stated that Spielberg’s home invasion terror served as some inspiration for the movie. He said, “At the time, we both lived up in the Palisades, and we were talking about power and struggles, and also he was going through a thing where there was a guy who broke into his house late at night, and was gonna, they found notes. The guy was gonna electrocute Steven, beat him up, and it was just horrible.”
Binder remarked that the movie was scheduled to start production at Spielberg’s DreamWorks studio under the direction of E.T producer. The former ultimately decided not to direct the film, according to the script. However, absurdly, he still wanted Binder to direct under the roof of his studio. Affleck wanted to collaborate with Binder after viewing his film, “The Upside of Anger.”
Binder remarked regarding their meeting to produce Man About Town, “We make a deal that he’s gonna do it, we shake hands, he’ll do it.”
Spielberg declared that he would not permit Affleck’s presence in the movie. “I call Steven, Steven says, ‘No. Can’t do it with him. We just bombed with a movie with him, he’s got that whole J-Lo thing going on now, and I have other problems with him,” Binder added.
Spielberg allegedly accused Affleck of fighting with his son during a family trip while he was seeing Gwyneth Paltrow, the director’s goddaughter, according to Binder. “‘My son was a little boy, he was playing in the pool, and he got out of the pool, and Ben came in fully dressed, and my son pushed Ben into the pool,'” he recalls Spielberg telling him. “‘And Ben got really mad at him, and he came out of the pool and picked him up and threw him back into the pool, and made my son cry.'”
Binder was unaware of the anecdote’s significance. “I said, ‘Okay, what does this have to do with anything?'” he asked. “He says, ‘I just don’t like to work with him. Plus, his last two movies bombed. Find somebody else. Anyone but him. He’s cold as hell.’ I said, ‘Okay, Steven.'”
When Binder gave in and broke the terrible news to Affleck’s representatives, the actor realized what had happened right away.”Did Steven Spielberg tell you I threw his kid in the water? Is that what happened? Is that why I’m not on your movie?” Binder recalled, “I said, ‘No, he didn’t say—’ ‘Yes he did! He told you I threw his kid in the water..'”
Spielberg didn’t object when the director told Spielberg that he still intended to utilize Affleck in the starring role. However, DreamWorks abandoned the project the next day, and Binder took it to another distributor.
Although Lionsgate, the film’s distributor, sent the film straight to DVD after Binder acknowledged that it was “s—ty” under his supervision, he insisted that Affleck provided a strong performance.
