'City on a Hill' News: Showtime Picks Up Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's Pilot
Showtime is adding Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's pilot titled "City on a Hill" to its roster.
It has been reported that the network picked up the one-hour drama pilot, which, according to executive producer Jennifer Todd, is "a gritty thriller about severe corruption and gangs, the type of series that takes you back and centers around the crime-riddled streets of Boston in the early '90s."
"City on a Hill" is a fictional account of the "Boston Miracle," wherein an African-American lawyer from Brooklyn arrived in Boston, a city with rampant corruption and racism. In an unlikely alliance with an FBI veteran, who is known for his corrupt ways yet was still respected, they changed the norm by overturning the city's criminal justice system.
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The story is said to be based on an idea by Affleck and script writer Chuck MacLean.
Gavin O'Connor, who helmed "The Accountant," is set to direct the pilot. He will also serve as an executive producer, together with Todd and James Mangold of Pearl Street Films, the production company that produced HBO's "Project Greenlight."
"Chuck wrote a pressure-cooker of a script steeped in the tribal codes of a Shakespeare play — family, blood, betrayal, honor," O'Connor said, as reported by Variety.
"His take on the ties that bind is handled with a deep honesty and insight. I see the show as a brawling thriller — and an intimate family drama — played out on the rough streets of Boston," he added.
Affleck and Damon, despite their outstanding work as actors, will not star on the show. They are only set to produce it.
A release date for "City on a Hill" has not been announced yet. According to Bleeding Cool, it is the first pilot that Showtime has ordered this year.
