Ben Affleck to direct Keeper of The Lost Cities

Ben Affleck is to direct 'Keeper of The Lost Cities'.

The 48-year-old star is set to helm Disney's live-action take on the best-selling book series of the same name by Shannon Messenger.

Ben will also produce the movie through his Pearl Street banner is adapting the script with Kate Gritmon. Madison Ainley is also involved in the movie as an executive producer.

In the novel, a telepathic girl must figure out why she is the key to her brand-new world before the wrong person discovers the answer first. When 12-year-old Sophie finally discovers where her unique ability comes from, she learns that she's actually not human but comes from another world that exists side-by-side with ours.

Ben has previously directed flicks such as 'Live By Night' and 'Argo' – which bagged him an Academy Award for Best Picture.

He is also set helm a new project about the making of 'Chinatown' which chronicles the making of the iconic 1974 flick which starred Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway and was directed by Roman Polanski.

Ben will both write and direct the upcoming movie, which will be titled 'The Big Goodbye' as it adapts the book 'The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood' by author Sam Wasson.

The publisher's description of 'Goodbye' reads: "Here is Jack Nicholson at the height of his powers, as compelling a movie star as there has ever been, embarking on his great, doomed love affair with Anjelica Huston.

"Here is director Roman Polanski, both predator and prey, haunted by the savage death of his wife, returning to Los Angeles, the scene of the crime, where the seeds of his own self-destruction are quickly planted.

"Here is the fevered deal making of "The Kid" Robert Evans, the most consummate of producers. Here too is Robert Towne's fabled script, widely considered the greatest original screenplay ever written.

"Wasson for the first time peels off layers of myth to provide the true account of its creation."