Ben Affleck Brings "The Town" To Venice Film Festival

By: Devon Thomas
Topics: Movies

Ben Affleck on Sept. 8, 2010, in Venice, Italy. (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

VENICE, Italy (CBS/AP) Ben Affleck brought Boston to the Venice Film Festival.

PICTURES: Venice Film Festival 2010

The 38-year-old actor presented his newest Beantown drama, "The Town," at the 67th Venice Film Festival on Wednesday, along with co-stars Rebecca Hall and Jeremy Renner.

Affleck also stars in the film, which is having its world premiere out of competition at the Venice Film Festival on the lagoon city's Lido.

Boston was also the setting for Affleck's Oscar-winning "Good Will Hunting," which he co-wrote and starred in, and "Gone Baby Gone," also written and directed by Affleck and starring his younger brother, Casey.

"I didn't want to get pigeonholed as the Boston director guy," Affleck told reporters at a packed news conference.

Still, the actor/director acknowledged that his deep understanding of the city helped him create the style he aspired to and which persuaded him to forge ahead with his latest project.

The plot involves a gang of bank robbers from the Boston neighborhood of Charleston, notorious for producing more bank and armored car robbers than anywhere else in the United States.

Affleck cited Warner Bros. classic gangster films, as well as the more recent Italian film "Gomorrah," directed by Matteo Garrone about the Neapolitan Camorra crime gang, as inspiration for his work on "The Town."