Ready for another Matt and Ben collab?
Netflix has dropped the trailer for “The Rip,” a gritty action thriller in which Damon and Affleck, who’ve been occasional coworkers in Hollywood for 30-plus years, play a couple of Miami cops under serious duress.
The movie, debuting on Netflix Jan. 16, is written and directed by Joe Carnahan and produced by Matt and Ben’s production company Artists Equity. “The Rip” also stars actress Teyana Taylor, who is almost certain to get an Oscar nomination for her performance as Perfidia Beverly Hills in director Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another.”
Damon and Affleck, buddies since both were students at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School way back when, last appeared on screen together in 2023’s “Air,” the origin story of the Nike Air Jordan. (Damon plays schlubby Nike talent scout Sonny Vaccaro, while Affleck is the sneaker company’s then-CEO Phil Knight.)
Although best known as the Oscar-winning screenwriters (and costars) of “Good Will Hunting,” Damon and Affleck have shared the screen more times than you might remember, though often fleetingly. Matt and Ben both appear in: “Field of Dreams” (1989); “School Ties” (1992); “Glory Daze” (1995); “Chasing Amy” (1997); “Dogma” (1999); “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” (2001); “The Third Wheel” (2002); “Jersey Girl” (2004); “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot” (2019); and “The Last Duel” (2023).
As producers, their Artists Equity company has backed “Air,” the Jennifer Lopez doc “The Greatest Love Story Never Told,” “The Instigators,” “Unstoppable,” and “The Accountant 2.”
Explaining their interest in producing “The Rip,” Damon told GQ: “Our goal is always to just make movies that we think we’ll like, which is really the same calculus we use in our own careers as actors. It kind of drives our creative team crazy because they’re like, ‘What are we looking for?’ And we always just go, ‘a good movie.’”
Mark Shanahan can be reached at mark.shanahan@globe.com. Follow him @MarkAShanahan.
