After watching The Town, the 2010 crime-thriller starring Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, and Jon Hamm—some of whom even put on passable Boston accents!—many of us ran to the Web, needing to know who wrote the script. The film looked like it was going to be a run-of-the-mill action hair-raiser, but instead, the novelist and screenwriter Peter Craig turned it into something with strong characters, unexpected twists, and depth. Craig studied under the writers Tobias Wolff and Marilynne Robinson, and his narrative chops shine through even the most formulaic blockbusters. His latest work is in Dope Thief, a crime drama executive produced by Ridley Scott. It concerns two friends who impersonate D.E.A. agents in order to rob a house, which, unluckily, is the headquarters of a narcotics operation. Bryan Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura star. —Jack Sullivan