Ben Affleck is being lined up for the lead in The Accountant, a thriller that may finally be coming out of development hell.

Concerning an accountant who moonlights as an assassin, it has been knocking around since 2011, when Bill Dubuque’s script was included on the Black List of most anticipated screenplays. At one point Will Smith was lined up to star, and both Mel Gibson and the Coen brothers to direct. Now Gavin O’Connor is being mooted for the project, who directed Warrior as well as taking over from Lynne Ramsey on the troubled Jane Got a Gun.

If Affleck signs on the dotted line, it’s a coup for the film, with the star’s luminescence currently at its brightest ever. Having clawed his way back from the post-Gigli hinterland, he’s become one of the few Hollywood figures to successfully balance big acting gigs with critically acclaimed directing. He’ll next play Batman in the wildly anticipated Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Affleck also set the internet aflutter with news that he has a nude scene in the new David Fincher thriller Gone Girl. He jokingly told MTV: “It’s Imax penis! You’ve gotta pay 15 bucks to see it in 3D … it’s better in 3D.”

Kyle Buchanan of pop-culture blog Vulture has since, very amusingly, gone to great lengths to explain exactly how you can witness Affleck’s genitalia in the movie. “Do not look at the other character, who is naked and showering at scene-left,” he suggests. “You did not come here for this other character. Know your mission. Memorize it. Say it out loud to yourself in the bathroom mirror before you leave your home.”