Entertainment This Week

June 15 - 21, 2019 3 Boston is famous for many things, one being its history of crime. Such names as Gaspare Messina, James "Buddy" McLean and James "Whitey" Bulger confirm that – and it's well-known by Oscar winners Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who grew up as friends in Cambridge, Mass. Both have made movies about the crime culture related to Boston, and they revisit it as executive producers of "City on a Hill," a Showtime drama premiering Sunday, June 16. Developed by fellow executive producer Chuck MacLean from his and Affleck's idea, the 1990s-set show tenuously teams an assistant district attorney newly relocated from Brooklyn (played by Aldis Hodge, formerly of "Leverage" and "Underground") and a FBI veteran (Kevin Bacon, returning to series work after "The Following" and "I Love Dick") whose renown partially cloaks his corrupt ways. The two men pursue a family that robs armored cars, ultimately impacting the whole of criminal justice in Boston. "The thing about 'City on a Hill' that I loved from the first time I read the pilot," Bacon explains, was that his character "Jackie's voice was something that I heard. The way that Chuck MacLean constructs dialogue in this world of '90s cops and robbers had a kind of gritty vibe to me that was reminiscent of the movies that I loved in the '70s from (directors Martin) Scorsese and Sidney Lumet. And I felt like there wasn't much on television that was really in this pocket. "Television is great, and there's a lot of really cool stuff to watch, but nothing that quite feels like this," adds Bacon. "Also, the thing that I like about 'City on a Hill' is that when you go into a situation where there's crime involved, your character can live most of the time on the job ... which is only interesting up to a point as far as I'm concerned as an actor. It gets interesting in 'City on a Hill ' because he goes home." To that end, "Law & Order" and "Crossing Jordan" alum Jill Hennessy also stars as Jackie's wife. Additional cast members include Cathy Moriarty ("Raging Bull"), Boston native Jonathan Tucker and Mark O'Brien as members of the crime family, as well as Sarah Shahi ("Person of Interest"), Amanda Clayton, Kevin Chapman (also born in Boston), Kevin Dunn and Rory Culkin. With former "Homicide: Life on the Street" partners Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana, two-time Oscar- ceremony producer Jennifer Todd and filmmaker James Mangold ("Walk the Line") also among executive producers of "City on a Hill," Hodge notes that he appreciates his prosecutor alter ego's dilemma in the series, "fighting for himself at the same time he's fighting for justice. Which is not a fair fight." Kevin Bacon fi ghts Boston crime in 'City on a Hill' Kevin Bacon (left) and Aldis Hodge star in the Showtime drama series "City on a Hill," premiering Sunday. BY JAY BOBBIN Answers: 1) "Raising Arizona" (1987) 2) Jack Nicholson 3) "A Guy Named Joe" 4) "Once Around" 5) Anna Paquin 6) John Grisham 7) Sigourney Weaver 8) Jodie Foster 9) Nikki Reed 10) Elastigirl BY JAY BOBBIN Questions: 1) Holly Hunter played a cop, one who desperately wanted a child, in the first theatrical movie to give her starring billing. Name it. 2) In "Broadcast News" (1987), which fellow Oscar winner — who isn't billed in the film's opening credits — played the main news anchor for the network Hunter's producer character worked for? 3) Hunter teamed with Richard Dreyfuss for the first time in "Always" (1989). Which screen classic was it a remake of? 4) Two years later, which romantic comedy-drama reunited Hunter and Dreyfuss? 5) Hunter earned an Oscar for "The Piano," as did the co-star who played her daughter. Name her. 6) Which novelist wrote "The Firm," which included Hunter in its all-star cast in its 1993 screen version? 7) The 1995 thriller "Copycat" teamed Hunter with which actress as the central stars? 8) Which other Oscar-winning actress directed Hunter in "Home for the Holidays" (1995)? 9) Which of Hunter's young co-stars in "Thirteen" (2003) also co-wrote the film? 10) What was the name of Hunter's superheroine character in the animated Disney-Pixar fantasy "The Incredibles" (2004)? Holly Hunter Starring Holly Hunter

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