Ben Affleck, Matt Damon: Twitter backlash over stars’ new film

Teaming up for the first time since Good Will Hunting their new project was supposed to be celebrated — but instead it’s sparked a furious reaction.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are reuniting for their first behind-the-scenes collaboration since Good Will Hunting — but not everyone is thrilled about their choice of project.

Damon and Affleck are set to star in The Last Duel which will be directed by Ridley Scott, Deadline reported.

The actors have also co-written the script with Nicole Holofcener and it is Damon and Affleck’s first script collaboration since they won an Oscar for writing Good Will Hunting in 1998.

Based on a novel by Eric Jager, Affleck and Damon will play French knight Jean de Carrouges and his squire Jacques Le Gris.

Best friends, Le Gris is accused of raping de Carrouges’ wife Margerite but no one will believe her.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Picture: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic.

After appealing to the French king the verdict will be decided by the two men fighting a duel to the death, but there’s a further catch.

If de Carrouges loses then his wife will be burnt alive at the stake as punishment for her “false accusation”.

After news of Damon and Affleck’s new project broke the backlash was swift, with several prominent critics questions why the had chosen a story about a woman accused of lying about being raped after the #MeToo movement.

“Taking out the (screenwriter) Holofcener factor, the movie is 2 men duelling over a woman. Please,” Women and Hollywood founder Melissa Silverstein tweeted.

It’s their first behind-the-scenes partnership since their Oscar-winning Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage)

“Every time I think we make some forward motion, the s**t rolls down the hill again.”

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are writing a script about war and rape and duels that they will also star in.

Ridley Scott to direct.

How does a story about a woman getting raped belong to three men? https://t.co/DnBdgX82uN

— Yolanda Machado (@SassyMamainLA) July 22, 2019

imagine being a straight man who wants to make a rape-revenge movie (already controversial!) and being like, "i've solved it! let's focus on the rapist & the victim's husband instead."

— Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (@Hello_Tailor) July 22, 2019

I cannot WAIT for the press tour in which they talk about being inspired by #MeToo. “As the father of daughters and occasionally a husband of a wife, I felt it was my responsibility to play a man who rapes his best friend’s wife in the olden days when such things still happened.”

— Adam B. Vary (@adambvary) July 22, 2019

Two actors I have no desire to see, with a plot I have no desire to critique. Look at all the time I won’t be wasting!

— Valerie Complex (@ValerieComplex) July 22, 2019

Both Damon and Affleck have come under scrutiny during the #MeToo movement, which saw dozens of women accuse key Hollywood players of sexual misconduct, starting with Harvey Weinstein in late 2017.

Last year, Damon was forced to apologise after saying sexual misconduct should be judged on a “spectrum of behaviour”.

“We’re going to have to figure — you know, there’s a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right?” Damon told ABC News.

In October 2017 Affleck apologised to former MTV host Hilarie Burton after video surfaced of him groping her during an 2004 interview.