Ben Affleck, Matt Damon bring Boston drama to Showtime

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are teaming up behind the camera of a new television pilot for Showtime. Shocker, right? These guys have been working together for ages, but with this Boston-set “gritty thriller” comes more noteworthy names from both of their worlds.

City on a Hill was conceived as an hourlong drama based on an idea by Affleck and Chuck MacLean, a Boston native who penned the screenplay for Boston Strangler, starring Affleck’s brother Casey Affleck. Set in the early 1990s, the pilot is a fictional account of “The Boston Miracle,” a program that focused on efforts to reduce gun violence among youth. The story centers on an African-American district attorney from Brooklyn working with “a corrupt yet venerated F.B.I. veteran” to take on a family of armored car robbers from Charlestown.

Affleck and Damon will executive produce City on a Hill with Gavin O’Connor (Affleck’s director on The Accountant), Jennifer Todd (Damon’s EP on Jason Bourne), and James Mangold (director of Logan).

“Chuck wrote a pressure-cooker of a script steeped in the tribal codes of a Shakespeare play — family, blood, betrayal, honor,” O’Connor, who also directs the pilot, said in a statement. “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.”

Todd explained, “City on a Hill 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. We are excited to be a part of this project with Showtime and to partner with Gavin again.”