It begins with a close-up of a ticking old-timey pocket watch, the shot widening to reveal a man on a boat bobbing on night-darkened waters. There’s a heap of atmospheric silver-blue haze. A foghorn sounds in the distance. Moments later, we see the shining lights in the distance that we’re told is Atlantic City, 1920. [New York Observer]
Since the finale of The Sopranos in 2007, there has been a gaping hole in the television schedule for a new crime drama. And now Martin Scorsese is hoping to bridge that gap with new TV show Boardwalk Empire, due to premiere later this month, for which he directed the pilot episode. [Daily Mail UK]
ON a blistering afternoon last June, outside a Polish social club in Greenpoint, men in heavy wool tuxedos, with slicked-back hair and pencil-thin mustaches, were blotting their brows. They looked like overheated figures from a Peter Arno drawing. Nearby were some very slender young women in spangly, ankle-length dresses. [New York Times]
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF. HBO’s Q&A session in the final hours of Summer TV Press Tour 2010 was a love fest the likes of which the tour hasn’t seen in ages.
The pay cable network used to be the darling of critics. Its deliciously lurid scripts attracted big movie stars, writers and directors, which enabled HBO suits to hold their heads up high around their offices. But these days, HBO is not the critics’ only love: AMC and FX have muscled into the HBO gripper-drama business with shows such as “Mad Men” and “Sons of Anarchy.” Last month, HBO again nabbed the most Emmy nominations of any network, but only three went to its series; the rest were in the movie and miniseries competitions. [The Washington Post]
Terence Winter battled a nagging thought as he wrote the pilot for HBO’s series “Boardwalk Empire,” a sprawling period epic that re-creates Atlantic City of the 1920s.
“I kept thinking ‘This is pointless. How can we possibly afford a boardwalk, or an empire?’?” Winter recalls. “We can’t call it ‘Boardwalk Empire’ and not see a boardwalk.” [Variety]
Atlantic City’s decadent 1920s heyday inspired HBO’s lavish TV series Boardwalk Empire, with a pilot directed by Martin Scorsese. But can it rescue the resort from a recession-hit present? [The Guardian UK]
HBO’s new series “Boardwalk Empire” will debut on Sunday, Sept. 19. So what? From previous experience, shows that originate in various cities around the nation draw many people who are anxious to see that city in person. Proof of that assumption is shown by the crowds drawn to the places where “The Sopranos” and “Jersey Shore” have originated. [Pinky's Corner]
