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After the success of the crime drama, Gone Baby Gone, I guess Ben Affleck and everyone else involved figured why mess with a good thing, and jumped right into another project based on a gritty crime novel. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Affleck is reuniting with his producing (and writing) partner Sean Bailey for The Blade Itself. The two will be producing the flick along with Miramax for Bailey's Ideology Films.

Miramax owns the film rights to Marcus Sakey's crime novel about two childhood friends. The Blade Itself centers on Evan and Danny, two kids from the 'mean streets' of Chicago. After a botched pawn shop robbery, Evan serves hard time and Danny turns to the straight and narrow. Seven years later, Evan is out and comes looking for Danny for payback. Using their past ties as a bargaining chip, Evan tries to drag Danny back into their partnership.

Back in October, Sakey himself had announced that it was Affleck and Matt Damon who would be producing. But it looks like there have been a few changes, since it is now Bailey and Affleck in charge. Bailey recently scored a first look deal with Disney for Ideology Films, and in the tradition of keeping it in the family, they will also produce the Jennifer Garner film, Sabbatical. Aaron Stockard, who also co-wrote Gone with Affleck, has been hired to adapt the script. I can't see them making many changes, but something tells me that with these two in charge, The Windy City will most likely be transformed into Bean Town. Just call it a hunch.

It's often the first few sentences of a novel that define the rest of the story, and in the case of Gone Baby Gone, it's Patrick Kenzie's (Casey Affleck) opening lines that tell you everything you need to know about his character, his mindset and the choices he'll make throughout the film: "It's what you don't choose in life that make you who you are." He goes on to give examples like family, or where you were born, while the camera sweeps across the hardened blue-collar streets of Dorchester, Mass., eventually landing smack in the middle of a community grieving the disappearance of a little girl who was kidnapped from her bed. Those of us on the outside looking in would describe these people as "white trash" -- the kind of folks that made Jerry Springer a household name -- but to Patrick, this is home. These are the people he grew up with, these are the people he'll grow old with, and these are the people he'll go out of his way to protect.

Patrick knows Helene McCready (Amy Ryan) from high school (he was a freshman when she was a slutty senior), and when her daughter Amanda is kidnapped in the middle of the night, Dorchester is thrown into a frenzy: Cops, news reporters, cameras and crowds of people camp outside Helene's small, unkempt apartment complex. Helene isn't some white, middle-class stay-at-home mom, she's a single woman with an abusive boyfriend and a coke habit. The cops, led by police captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman), begin to do what they do best -- but for Helene's sister-in-law (Amy Madigan), that's not enough. And so she, along with her reluctant husband Lionel (Titus Welliver) seek out the services of Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro (Michele Monaghan); two fairly young private investigators who know the neighborhood, know its people and know how to find someone. And while Kenzie and Gennaro are extremely hesitant at first (after all, every cop in the city is looking for that little girl), they eventually decide to take the case. It would wind up being the single best -- and worst -- decision they would ever make.