Former 24 writer/producer Howard Gordon is a busy man. With Jack Bauer only just off the air this year, he’s already spent time setting up not one, but two new possible pilots. News on the first – a drama about people facing their fears, co-written with Glee’s Ryan Murphy – broke last week. And now there’s Homeland, which Showtime is close to ordering as a pilot, one which Ben Affleck has expressed interest in directing.
As of right now, Homeland is the likely title, not the final one, but what we do know via Deadline is that it’ll be based on an Israeli format called Prisoners of War. The original follows three soldiers who return from 17 years of captivity in Syria and must re-integrate into their lives in Israel while reuniting with their families.
The US take would see two US army troopers going missing during the invasion of Baghdad, with one recovered 10 years later after a remote drone strikes an Al-Qaeda safe house in Afghanistan. But while he’s welcomed home as a hero, a female CIA agent with experience in the region gets a tip that he might have been turned and could well be the first wave in a new attack on America.
Gordon, who says the show “combines some of the suspense elements of the thriller genre but it also has a wonderful family drama at the centre of it,” wrote the script with fellow former 24 producer Alex Gansa. It’s not the first time the US cable channel has launched a show about US-based terror – Sleeper Cell followed an FBI agent infiltrating an extremist group.
If Affleck does sign on, it’ll be his first crack at directing television. He’s currently riding high with the success of The Town, so we’re sure he’s in demand. But if Martin Scorsese can return to TV for Boardwalk Empire, then it's certain the goggle box would welcome Affleck with open arms.
Since everything is still up in the air (the pilot has not yet officially been ordered and Affleck’s schedule could still be an issue), consider all this a rumour for now.