Ben Affleck with his award for best director for "Argo" during the 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 13, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Ben Affleck and Boston-set crime stories. With the success of movies like Gone Baby Gone and The Town, it’s a match that’s been very successful for Hollywood. And, soon perhaps, for television.
Fox has ordered a pilot of The Middle Man, a crime drama that takes place in Boston and set for production in 2014, that Affleck is slated to direct.
Affleck has teamed with writer Glen Gordon Caron (Moonlighting and Medium) and producer Chay Carter (Argo) to create a 1960s-era show that delves into the life of FBI agent Rudy MacAteer’s fledgling attempts to break the Italian-American mafia. Add in an Irish-American gangster informant, Mickey Flood (gotta love the name, right?) and MacAteer and Flood find all kinds of trouble and mob-like issues that could last as long as Fox wants them to.
Expect to see the pilot air on Fox sometime in the 2014-2015 television season.
Starting with Goodwill Hunting, Affleck made Boston his backdrop of choice, both for acting and directing. Most recently The Town and Gone Baby Gone showed off his Boston-based directing abilities. But even before we catch any of The Middle Man, we’ll possibly see another Affleck-directed Boston crime drama, this on the big screen, when Live By Night comes out in 2014. And, in case you hadn’t heard, Affleck also does non-Boston based movies, with titles such as Runner Runner (Oct. 4), Gone Girl (2015) and one other that includes a superhero (2015), all on the horizon.