Today, Showtime announced that Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominee Kevin Bacon (The Following, Mystic River) and Screen Actors Guild award winner Aldis Hodge (Underground) will star in the network’s new one-hour drama pilot City on a Hill. The project will be executive produced by Academy Award winners Ben Affleck and Matt Damon and Emmy nominee Jennifer Todd (Jason Bourne, Memento) for Pearl Street Films, written and executive produced by Chuck MacLean (Boston Strangler), and directed and executive produced by Michael Cuesta (Homeland, American Assassin). Produced by Showtime, City on a Hill is based on an original idea by Affleck and MacLean. James Mangold (Logan, Walk The Line) will also serve as executive producer. Bacon will serve as co-executive producer. Production will begin in Boston later this year. The announcement was made today by David Nevins, President and CEO of Showtime Networks Inc.
In the early ’90s, Boston was rife with violent criminals emboldened by local law enforcement agencies in which corruption and racism was the norm, and then it all suddenly changed. City on a Hill is a fictional account of what was called the “Boston Miracle.” The change agent is District Attorney “Decourcy Ward” (Hodge) who comes from Brooklyn and forms an unlikely alliance with a corrupt yet venerated FBI veteran, “Jackie Rhodes” (Bacon), who is deeply invested in maintaining the status quo. Together they take on a family of armored car robbers from Charlestown in a case that grows to encompass and eventually upend Boston’s city-wide criminal justice system.
“Kevin Bacon radiates intelligence and mystery with every role he plays,” Nevins said. “He is a gifted, mesmerizing actor who will be the perfect partner and foil to Aldis Hodge, one of Hollywood’s rising talents and someone primed to stand at the center of this powerful drama.”
A star for more than three decades since his breakout roles in Diner and Footloose, Bacon won Golden Globe and SAG honors for his lead role in the television movie Taking Chance, and was also nominated for a Golden Globe for his supporting role in The River Wild and a SAG Award for Murder in the First. He has received three other SAG Award nominations with the ensembles of Frost/Nixon, Mystic River and Apollo 13. More recently, Bacon has starred in the television series I Love Dick and The Following. His many credits also include A Few Good Men, JFK and The Big Picture.
In addition to winning a SAG Award with the ensemble of Hidden Figures, Hodge was nominated for SAG honors with the cast of Straight Outta Compton. His additional film credits include Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, The East, A Good Day to Die Hard, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Bed of Roses, The Stone House, Edmond, The Lady Killer, Big Momma’s House and Magic Camp. Hodge has also starred or recurred in numerous television series, including Underground, Leverage, Black Mirror, Turn: Washington’s Spies, Medal of Honor, CSI, Supernatural, Friday Night Lights, Girlfriends, The Walking Dead, Bones, ER, Cold Case, Charmed, Boston Public and American Dreams. He is currently in production in the lead role on the feature film The Brian Banks Story directed by Tom Shadyac.
