Ben Affleck is to replace Edward Norton in the U.S. film version of the British miniseries "State of Play," after its shooting schedule was delayed by more than a month.

Shooting was scheduled to begin before the end of the year but rescheduled on January afterwards.

Norton had to give up on the project because the data change would have interfered with his next film "Leaves of Grass," an independent comedy written and to be directed by Tim Blake Nelson, the Hollywood Reporter wrote.

Norton‘s departure follows Brad Pitt’s exit last month, just as the film was about to start production in Los Angeles. Pitt left the film because differences with Universal Pictures over the film’s script. Director Kevin Macdonald contacted Russell Crowe immediately and asked him to join the project, so the film was rescheduled to start production in January 2008.

Affleck will play the role of a U.S. congressman embroiled in a conspiracy after Norton asked to leave the film, according to the HR. Crowe will play a journalist who leads a newspaper’s investigation into the killing. The journalists once ran the politician’s campaign and he is now romancing his estranged wife.
 
Besides, Crowe and Affleck, the film also stars Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright Penn and Jason Bateman. The original TV series, about a team of journalists investigating the mysterious death of a political researcher included between its actors John Simm, Bill Nighy and David Morrissey.