Two weeks from cameras, a competing Spike Lee film stopped production cold. The story of how Animals became what it is.

Ben Affleck's Netflix thriller Animals nearly died on the vine before it found its form. Production halted two weeks before filming was set to begin after Affleck learned Spike Lee and Denzel Washington were developing Highest 2 Lowest, a kidnapping thriller with similar thematic territory.

"We get very close to shooting, and then somebody said to me, 'Hey, you know, there's this other movie that Spike [Lee] and Denzel [Washington] are doing that's about a kidnapping,'" Affleck told Entertainment Weekly. "It's hard enough to make a good movie. You don't want those kinds of headwinds."

The pause cost Affleck his original cast. Matt Damon, set to star opposite Jennifer Garner as a married couple, later became unavailable after committing to Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. Garner chose not to proceed. "I thought, 'God, Jen Garner would be amazing for this role,'" Affleck said, according to The Wrap. "We don't want to do that. You just get baggage." Kerry Washington joined the project in her place, with Steven Yeun, Gillian Anderson, Luis Gerardo Méndez, and Adriana Paz rounding out the cast.

Animals follows a Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose son is kidnapped, leaving the parents hours to secure a ransom. Affleck directs, co-wrote the screenplay, and now leads the film as its central character. It arrives on Netflix on October 9, 2026, following a limited theatrical release.

The story of its making is almost as tense as the film itself. Two competing kidnapping thrillers in simultaneous development, one paused, one rebuilt. Affleck stepped back, then stepped fully in. The result is a project he now owns at every level.