‘The Instigators’ first look out; Matt Damon, Casey Affleck’s Apple TV film gets a release date

Matt Damon and Casey Affleck in the first-look of ‘The Instigators’ | Photo Credit: Apple Films

Apple Films today unveiled the first look of actors Matt Damon and Casey Affleck from their upcoming film The Instigators. With the first look, the production banner also announced that the film will premiere on Apple TV+ on August 9 after releasing in select theatres on August 2.

Said to be a buddy comedy heist movie inspired by Midnight Run and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Instigators is directed by Doug Liman, who previously collaborated with Damon for 2002’s The Bourne Identity.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Affleck described the film as a story of two strangers who become frenemies. According to the report, the film features Damon as Rory, a desperate father, who reluctantly teams up with an ex-convict named Cobby (Affleck) to rob a corrupt politician’s ill-gotten gains. However, the heist goes awry, leading to chaos as they are pursued by the police, bureaucrats, and crime bosses. Along the way, they persuade Rory’s therapist (Hong Chau) to join their wild escape.

“The Instigators is about two strangers who are hired for a heist. They become frenemies and then become friends while Jack Harlow yells at us, Paul Walter Hauser insults us, Ving Rhames hunts us, and Hong Chau keeps us alive,” Entertainment Weekly quoted Affleck.

The Instigators has a script written by Chuck MacLean and developed by Robinov, Graham and Casey Affleck. The star-studded cast of the film includes Michael Stuhlbarg, Alfred Molina, and Ron Perlman.

Notably, Affleck and Damon first starred together in Good Will Hunting, which also starred Casey’s brother and Damon’s frequent collaborator Ben Affleck. The actors were then seen together in Gerry, the Ocean’s trilogy, Interstellar, and last year’s magnum opus Oppenheimer.