Ben Affleck, Matt Damon team up for dark ride in 'The RIP'

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, known for sticking together through thick and thin, worked on another major project for Netflix. 

The two real-life best friends starred in a crime thriller called The RIP, which wrapped filming in December 2024. The film was expected to hit Netflix in January 2026. 

The story has been kept mostly under wraps but it was clear the film wouldn’t be just another cop drama.

It was co-written and directed by Joe Carnahan, man behind Smoking Aces, and based on a script by Michael McGrale, who worked on The Following.

Damon and Affleck didn’t just star in it, they also produced the film through their company Artists Equity, the same studio behind their other Netflix project, Animals, which had gone into production earlier in 2025.

According to Carnahan, idea for the crime thirller came from something close to home. He shared that a close friend of his, who was a father and also led the narcotics division in Miami-Dade police, went through a painful experience that stayed with him till now.

The RIP took inspiration from that real-life story and also paid tribute to classic 70s crime films that focused more on people than explosions.

Carnahan mentioned films like Serpico, Prince of the City, and Heat as examples.

However, with Damon and Affleck at the heart of it, The RIP aimed to bring both emotion and grit to the screen.