Ben Affleck's Gone Baby Gone was delayed because of this eerily similar true crime case

Ben Affleck proved himself to be a capable filmmaker with his crime thriller Away, baby, awayBut his directorial debut was doomed by bad luck when it crossed paths with a real-life crime case with familiar parallels.

Ben Affleck's “Gone Baby Gone” was influenced by this famous child abduction case

Away, baby, away already dealt with a very serious and sensitive topic. The film, starring Casey Affleck, revolved around the disappearance of a young girl from Boston and the search for her whereabouts. Around the same time, reports of a real missing girl made national headlines.

A young British child named Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday home in Portugal in 2007. McCann's physical appearance also spoke for the child actor who was at the center of Away, baby, awaywhich makes the subject even more sensitive. Out of respect for McCann's situation, Affleck decided to postpone the film's planned release date.

“We are more concerned about the situation of this young girl than the release of our film,” Affleck once said, according to Express. “This is purely a commercial concern, but it is a matter of life and death, of people and families, and it is quite tragic. No one takes this lightly.”

“I had only a superficial knowledge of it. We wanted to be sensitive because we didn't want to release the film if it was going to offend anyone's sensibilities,” he added.

Affleck became a father himself shortly before filming began, which may have further influenced his decision.

“These issues have gone from being the worst you can imagine as an exercise to this really emotional feeling of the most painful and horrible thing I can imagine,” he continued. “It's a big shift in my life because I feel things more deeply… anything to do with children. It makes me realize how much more vulnerable a child is. Having a child is like taking the most vulnerable aspect of myself, reaching in and taking it out of my body, and it's about to fall off the chair.”

This is how the English audience reacted to “Gone Baby Gone”

Affleck made it clear to Uncut that the British audience, who Away, baby, away The film was well received at a test screening. All in all, Affleck felt he could have released the film on the scheduled date without much or no backlash. But the Oscar winner and the film studio still didn't want to take any chances.

“When we did our research and showed the film in the UK, no one objected or said it would bother them,” Affleck said. “We decided to go ahead with it anyway because we felt we could play it safe and be respectful. And I don't take any credit for that because, to be honest, it wasn't like Disney UK left the decision up to me. I was only made aware of it after the fact, but I was certainly proud to work with a company that made a decision that I felt was respectful and appropriate.”

Ben Affleck wanted “Gone Baby Gone” to feel as real as possible

Affleck wanted to undress Away, baby, away from all the usual glitz and glamour found in many other similar films. His plan was to highlight the less fortunate sides of Boston and humanity in general.

“You don't see anyone here who is complete or totally together, the way you see people in a lot of Hollywood movies,” Affleck once told NPR.

The vicious cycle of poverty and its impact on the younger generation was a recurring theme in the thriller. This played a major role in the kidnapping of the child in the film, whose life at home already left much to be desired.

“At first you think she's a victim,” Affleck said of the young girl. “But then you see her mother, who is really mean and uses racist language, and you see the misery that the girl lives in, and you feel for her because that's where she lived, not just where she was taken. It raises all kinds of questions about how we live and how we treat children.”

To add more authenticity to the film, Affleck tried to film the cast and crew when they least expected it, if only to capture their honest reactions and behavior.

“We had to make sure people didn’t feel like the camera was on them,” he said.