Ben Affleck and Matt Damon launch production company

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are launching a new production company.

The 'Good Will Hunting' stars, along with Gerry Cardinale, have unveiled plans for Artists Equity, which will seek to create "entrepreneurial partnerships" with filmmakers and aims to empower creative vision and "broaden access to profit participation".

RedBird Capital Partners are making “a significant financial commitment in launching the company" and will be "providing strategic capital and operational expertise to accelerate its development and production pipeline", an announcement confirmed.

The two actors will lead the company and its first project will feature Ben as director and Matt as the star in a movie exploring the creation of the Air Jordan brand, which will be released in 2023, one of three projects planned for next year.

Ben, who will be Chief Executive Officer of Artists Equity, said: “Artists Equity was conceived from Matt’s and my longtime passion for the art of storytelling and our shared desire to help creators deliver on their vision, as we have been fortunate to do throughout our careers.

“The entertainment industry is defined by great partnerships – writers, directors, producers, crew, actors – and throughout my career I have learned that collaboration is what drives success. Our goal with Artists Equity is to build a creator-focused studio that can optimise the production process with shared participation in the commercial success of projects.

"We are thrilled to partner with Gerry Cardinale and the RedBird team, who have a long track record of building notable scaled platform businesses around unique IP. Matt and I are looking forward to working together to empower the current and future creative minds in the entertainment industry.”

And Matt, who will be Chief Content Officer, added: “Historically, the success of a film was based on its box office performance. Now, with the rise of streaming, the business behind filmmaking has intrinsically changed.

"However, Ben and I know that the power will continue to be in the hands of the creators, no matter which direction the industry evolves.

“Artists Equity enables these visionaries to take ownership of their creative power, providing a platform for both established and emerging filmmakers to streamline the development of their content. Ben and I are lucky to have worked with some of the best in the business, and our partnership with Gerry Cardinale and the team at RedBird continues us on that trajectory as we look to innovate and empower through the Artists Equity platform.”