Matt Damon‘s a political guy, but with the exception of, let’s say, Green Zone, I can’t argue that much of his onscreen work has reflected any liberal leanings. However, Politico (via Vulture and CinemaBlend) picked up some new details on the Gus Van Sant-directed Promised Land — and, thanks to the filmmakers behind a project entitled FrackNation, we now know he was going to make a debut on a water fracking story.

Despite some early development on The Fracking Stage (yeah, terrible joke), here we have a topic I can’t consider myself well versed in; Politico, thankfully, nicely summarized it as “the controversial practice of pumping a mixture of sand, water and chemicals into a well to break up rock and help extract natural gas.” (Josh Fox‘s documentary, Gasland, covered similar ground.) You can more or less figure out why this is potentially harmful to environments — and you’d undoubtedly believe that some big companies try to push it forward — so it’s, in turn, also fair to say that an outspoken liberal, like Damon, has written something a little fiery for Van Sant to dig into.

Co-written by John Krasinski, Promised Land will see the both of them play rival corporate executives in a small town — who we now know are engaged in water fracking — while Rosemarie DeWitt is the third part of their love triangle. With Frances McDormand and Hal Holbrook also starring, Promised Land looks to be one of 2013′s more promising dramas.

Does this new information lend any weight to Promised Land?