Ben Affleck's addiction drama 'The Way Back' has been pushed back five months.

Ben Affleck

Ben Affleck

The release of upcoming movie - which was previously titled both 'The Has-Been' and 'Torrance' - has been delayed by Warner Bros from October 18, 2019 to March 6, 2020.

As reported by Deadline, the new date will give the movie "more breathing room" than it would have had in a crowded marketplace at the end of the year, while the start of college basketball's March Madness means bosses can promote the film at an opportune time.

The movie will is based on a script by Brad Ingelsby and will see the Affleck, 45, reunite with director Gavin O'Connor, 53, after they previously worked together on 2016 drama 'The Accountant'.

'The Way Back' tells the story of a former basketball star who finds himself in an addiction battle after losing his wife, and in a bid to rescue his life, he becomes the coach of an ethnically mixed high school team.

Affleck is being lined up to play the coach, while O'Connor is being eyed to direct the project.

The pair's previous collaboration saw the actor portraying Christian Wolff, who had a high-functioning form of autism, and the filmmaker subsequently revealed how much he relished the experience of working with the Oscar-winning star.

He previously shared: "Here's what we did. We met a lot of autism specialists and educators. And then we met a lot of guys on the spectrum. And then, just as I started this journey, I was sent a three-hour rough cut of a documentary called 'Asperger's Are Us'.

"It's about four guys on the spectrum who are comedians, who have a comedy troupe. And I laughed so hard and I called Ben and said, 'Dude, you've got to watch this with me.'

"So I went over to his house, and we laughed, and that was liberating. That was my introduction to the humour [that can be found in autism]. I knew I wanted to have that element in the film, and so did Ben, but it needed to be proven, needed to be substantiated. This film did that."


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