Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge lead crime drama ‘City on a Hill’

Actor Kevin Bacon. Image: AFP/Mark Ralston

Kevin Bacon and Aldis Hodge will team up as unlikely partners in crime drama “City on a Hill”, based on a true life period of gun violence and law enforcement in 1990s Boston, with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon executive producing.

When District Attorney Decourcy Ward arrives in Boston, he ends up working with an iconic but corrupt FBI official, Jackie Rhodes.

The two men want different things, with Rhodes invested in keeping things as they are, but their motivations combine in solving a series of armed robberies, a case which has far-reaching consequences across the city’s entire law enforcement system.

Starring in “City on a Hill” for Showtime, Aldis Hodge of “Underground” and “Turn: Washington’s Spies” plays D.A. Ward, with Kevin Bacon of “Apollo 13” and “Mystic River” in as FBI veteran Rhodes.

The series is based on the Boston Miracle (alternatively known as Operation Ceasefire), a 1996 program that prompted a dramatic reversal gun violence trends throughout the city, though “City on a Hill” represents a fictionalized interpretation of events.

Currently best known as a star of Warner Bros.’ DC Comics movies “Batman v Superman” and “Justice League,” Ben Affleck previously earned writing credits on Boston-set movies “Good Will Hunting”, “Gone Baby Gone”, “The Town” and “Live by Night”, as well as one-season mystery “Push, Nevada”.

“Good Will Hunting” famously resulted in a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for both Affleck and fellow actor and writer Matt Damon, and “City on a Hill” is being produced through their Pearl Street Films label.

Both Affleck and Damon grew up in the Boston suburb Cambridge.

As well as leading “Underground” and appearing in “Turn”, Hodge shared an ensemble award with the cast of NASA mathematicians biopic “Hidden Figures” and played a prominent role in “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back”.

Bacon has recently starred in serial killer drama “The Following”, played FBI agents in both “Black Mass” and “Patriots Day” and has committed to a TV reboot of classic horror movie “Tremors”.

Experienced actors, both Kevin Bacon and Aldis Hodge have played characters called Ren; Bacon as the lead from music-oriented teen drama “Footloose” and Hodge as a rapper MC in NWA hip hop biography “Straight Outta Compton”. JB

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