Matt Damon Eyed for a Movie Based on the Catholic Church Sex-Abuse Scandal

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When he’s not out promoting new sci-fi film Elysium, or getting naked with Michael Douglas in HBO movies, or talking about Whitey Bulger biopics with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon still finds time to scope out some new roles. This time the Boston boy is being eyed for another Massachusetts-based film.

The Wrap has reported that Matt Damon is being eyed by producers to star in actor/producer/writer Tom McCarthy’s project about the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize–winning reportage on the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse scandal.

As of right now, Anonymous Content and Rocklin/Faust are producing the movie with Participant Media. Participant planned to finance the movie with DreamWorks, but the production company bailed on the controversial movie at the last minute. According to The Wrap, Warner Bros.—which worked on Argo, The Town, and will work with Affleck and Damon’s Whitey Bulger film—is the lead prospect to distribute.

The untitled project will take on the same spirit as the 1976 film All the President’s Men, which followed journalist-duo Woodward and Bernstein as they investigated the Watergate scandal for the Washington Post. The story follows the Catholic Church’s cover-up of its pedophile priests in Massachusetts that lasted for decades. Journalists at the Globe—Michael Rezendes, Sacha Pfeiffer, Matt Carroll, Walter “Robby” Robinson, Ben Bradlee Jr., and editor Marty Baron—reviewed thousands of documents and interviewed victims, only to expose that Cardinal Bernard Law, America’s Senior Catholic Prelate, was protecting predator priests by moving them to different parishes.

This hardcore investigating not only earned the Globe team a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003, but began a wave of exposures of similar situations around the world.

McCarthy has been reportedly working on the script under wraps for quite some time, alongside The West Wing writer Josh Singer. Whether shooting will take place in Massachusetts is yet to be determined. Damon is supposed to play Michael Rezendes, the Globe journalist who spearheaded the charge on behalf of the newspaper. (He’s no Mark Consuelos, but we’ll take it.)

Whether Damon is on board to jump into the role is yet to be determined, but this A-lister and Boston-bred Oscar winner would be a great addition to any project—especially a particularly promising one based in his hometown.

The only disappointing thing about this news is that Damon would work without buddy Ben Affleck. But we’ll let their Whitey Bulger movie have its glory.