Warner Bros. has reportedly closed on a deal to adapt Nathaniel Philbrick's upcoming book Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution with Ben Affleck tagged to possibly direct.  Affleck will send the book to screenwriter Chris Terrio (Argo) which marks it as a substantial project moving forward.  Affleck is currently busy adapting the Dennis Lehane novel Live By Night which he'll direct, produce and star in.  Hit the jump for more on Bunker Hill

Deadline reports on WB's acquisition of Bunker Hill with Affleck possibly directing.  Author Philbrick is the man behind the pen of In the Heart of the Seawhich has an adaptation set up for Ron Howard to direct and possibly star Chris Hemsworth.  Bunker Hill will take Affleck back to New England to tell the story of the bloody clash between American colonists and British troops that united the colonies in their war for independence.

Here's the book description for Philbrick's Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution, due out April 30th (via Amazon):

Nathaniel Philbrick, the bestselling author of In the Heart of the Sea and Mayflower, brings his prodigious talents to the story of the Boston battle that ignited the American Revolution.

Boston in 1775 is an island city occupied by British troops after a series of incendiary incidents by patriots who range from sober citizens to thuggish vigilantes. After the Boston Tea Party, British and American soldiers and Massachusetts residents  have warily maneuvered around each other until April 19, when violence finally erupts at Lexington and Concord.  In June, however, with the city cut off from supplies by a British blockade and Patriot militia poised in siege, skirmishes give way to outright war in the Battle of Bunker Hill. It would be the bloodiest battle of the Revolution to come, and the point of no return for the rebellious colonists.

Philbrick brings a fresh perspective to every aspect of the story. He finds new characters, and new facets to familiar ones. The real work of choreographing rebellion falls to a thirty-three year old physician named Joseph Warren who emerges as the on-the-ground leader of the Patriot cause and is fated to die at Bunker Hill. Others in the cast include Paul Revere, Warren’s fiancé the poet Mercy Scollay, a newly recruited George Washington, the reluctant British combatant General Thomas Gage and his more bellicose successor William Howe, who leads the three charges at Bunker Hill and presides over the claustrophobic cauldron of a city under siege as both sides play a nervy game of brinkmanship for control.

With passion and insight, Philbrick reconstructs the revolutionary landscape—geographic and ideological—in a mesmerizing narrative of the robust, messy, blisteringly real origins of America.

bunker-hill-a-city-a-siege-a-revolution-nathaniel-philbrick