Gangster's Paradise
Ever since The Sopranos shuffled off to the great Journey tribute concert in the sky, fans of quality drama have been pining for a television show worthy of their love (and no, Mad Men doesn’t count, you wuss) . Well, now it’s finally here. Chronicling the murky criminal underworld of Prohibition-era Atlantic City, and with an all-star cast, Boardwalk Empire looks set to be the TV event of the year. Kicking off our Hot For 2011 issue, screenwriter Terence Winter tells us about his latest creation
Stuart Clark, 19 Jan 2011
A prohibition-era drama set in Atlantic City, which stars Steve Buscemi, is written by Terence Winter of The Sopranos fame, has Martin Scorsese as its Executive Producer and cast members who’ve variously starred in Trainspotting, Harry Potter, No Country For Old Men, Gangs Of New York, Macheté, The Bad Lieutenant and Deception.
It sounds too good to be true, but that’s precisely what you’ll be able to feast on in February when the wonderful Boardwalk Empire debuts here on Sky Atlantic, a new entertainment channel that’ll cherry pick from HBO, AMC and other American cable networks.
The subject of some seriously rave Stateside reviews – “The Academy should save itself a little time and roll a big truck full of Emmy statuettes to the Boardwalk Empire studios right now” gushed Salon.com – it’s the perfect vehicle for Buscemi who plays Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, the semi-fictional and wholly crooked city treasurer who has a weakness for young Irish widows.
Terence Winter says that Buscemi’s casting was a “no-brainer” as was his own agreeing to script the HBO 13-parter.
“Steve’s one of the most easy-going, regular guys I’ve ever met,” reflects the former lawyer who’s holed up for the day in Manhattan’s boutique Crosby Street Hotel. “There’s no attitude or bullshit – he’s always prepared and has a great sense of humour, which has a trickle down effect on the rest of the cast in terms of behaviour. I wanted to replicate the happy set we had on The Sopranos. If it’s a film you think, ‘Well, I only have to get through the next sixty days with this son of a bitch!’ but with a TV series you could be stuck with them for the next eight years. You really want to know what someone’s like in terms of their work ethic and personality before casting them, and Steve is great.
“As for my own involvement,” Winter reflects, “we were just coming to the end of The Sopranos when HBO rang up and said, ‘We have this book we want you to read and see if there’s a TV series in there.’ It turned out to be Boardwalk Empire, which is essentially the history of Atlantic City from the 1800s to the modern-day. After they casually threw in: ‘Oh yeah, Martin Scorsese is attached to this’, I went home to my wife and said, ‘This is mine to screw up!’ The components were all there, I just had to put them together.”
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