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Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan Get Confessional in First Look at George Clooney’s ‘The Tender Bar’

There are more than a few surprises coming for awards watchers and film fans this Christmas. George Clooney’s latest, “The Tender Bar,” looks to be one of them.

Amazon Studios will release the film in select theaters on Dec. 17, the studio announced Wednesday, followed by a nationwide rollout on Dec. 22. Amazon Prime Video members will have access to the film on Jan. 7.

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Clooney is back in the director’s chair for this adaptation of J.R. Moehringer’s memoir of the same name. Ben Affleck stars alongside Tye Sheridan (“Ready Player One”), Christopher Lloyd and Lily Rabe (“American Horror Stories”). Oscar winner William Monaghan {“The Departed”) adapted the screenplay. Clooney and Grant Heslov are producing via their Smokehouse Pictures.

“The Tender Bar” tells the story of J.R. (Sheridan), a fatherless boy growing up in the glow of a bar where the bartender, his Uncle Charlie (Affleck), is the sharpest and most colorful of an assortment of quirky and demonstrative father figures.

As the boy’s determined mother (Rabe) struggles to provide her son with opportunities denied to her — and leave the dilapidated home of her outrageous if begrudgingly supportive father (Lloyd) — J.R. begins to gamely, if not always gracefully, pursue his romantic and professional dreams — with one foot persistently placed in Uncle Charlie’s bar.

Affleck will also star in the awards player “The Last Duel” alongside longtime friend and collaborator Matt Damon, Jodie Comer (“Killing Eve”) and Adam Driver (“House of Gucci”). That project, directed by Ridley Scott, opens Oct. 15 via Disney’s 20th Century label.

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