Showtime has tapped Tom Fontana, creator of “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “Oz” to serve as showrunner for its upcoming drama starring Kevin Bacon, “City on a Hill.”
The Boston-set drama is based on an original idea by Ben Affleck, who will executive produce the drama with his buddy and fellow New England-er Matt Damon.
The series is set in early 1990s Boston, rife with violent criminals emboldened by local law enforcement agencies in which corruption and racism was the norm. In this fictional account, assistant district attorney Decourcy Ward (Aldis Hodge) arrives from Brooklyn and forms an unlikely alliance with a corrupt yet venerated FBI veteran, Jackie Rohr (Bacon). Together, they take on a family of armored car robbers from Charlestown in a case that grows to involve, and ultimately subvert, the entire criminal justice system of Boston.
The rest of the cast includes Jonathan Tucker, Mark O’Brien, Jill Hennessy, Lauren E. Banks, Amanda Clayton, Kevin Chapman, Jere Shea and Kevin Dunn.
Fontana will work closely with series creator and executive producer Chuck MacLean on the 10-episode series premiering in 2019. In addition to Affleck and Damon, “City on a Hill” has more high-profile producers attached, including Barry Levinson, Jennifer Todd, Michael Cuesta and James Mangold. MacLean wrote the pilot and Cuesta directed it. Bacon also serves as co-executive producer.
A longtime TV producer and writer, Fontana has created numerous TV shows including “Oz,” “Borgia,” “Copper,” “The Philanthropist,” “The Bedford Diaries” and “The Jury.” Fontana was also an executive producer for a pair of HBO films, “The Wizard of Lies” and “Paterno.”
Over his career, Fontana has received 19 Emmy nominations, winning for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series in 1984 and 1986 for “St. Elsewhere” and in 1993 for “Homicide.”