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]
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]
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Never one to shy away from putting gangland dramas on film, Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese is now bringing an underworld story to television as executive producer of upcoming HBO series “Boardwalk Empire“.
“Boardwalk Empire” is based on a nonfiction book by Nelson Johnson, chronicling the life of Enoch “Nucky” Johnson, played by Steve Buscemi. It is set in New Jersey’s Atlantic City during the 1920s, just as World War One ended, women received the right to vote and the sale of liquor became prohibited throughout the United States under federal law.
via Martin Scorsese brings gangland drama to HBO > Entertainment > Reuters.
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 has announced that the premiere date for “Boardwalk Empire” will be Sept. 19. The paycaster’s marquee series for 2010 bears an award-winning pedigree. Oscar winner Martin Scorsese (“The Departed”) is executive producing the series about bootleggers in 1920s Atlantic City, while Terence Winter — who adapted Nelson Johnson’s novel of the same name…[The Envelope.com]
ATLANTIC CITY – Who needs HBO?
As the cable giant gets ready to broadcast its series Boardwalk Empire, the epic saga of Atlantic City politicians, vice, and dames, the real-life Atlantic City – as if on cue – had one of its regularly occurring convulsions Wednesday when Gov. Christie delivered a jolt to the sagging resort. [the Philadelphia Inquirer]
Believe it or not, I walked on a Boardwalk that took me back to my early childhood, except for the fact that there were no people walking in either direction. The storefronts on this boardwalk were of Atlantic City’s 1920 and ’30s era. The stores were open and even had merchandise within them. One of them blew me away. The sign on the window said, “Incubators.” (pressofAtlanticCity.com)
Nelson Johnson just wanted to understand.
The lawyer who represented Atlantic City’s Planning Board during the dawn of the casino age in the early 1980s said Friday that he was “impressed by the state of affairs in City Hall.” (pressofAtlanticCity.com)
