The year is 2040, and the United States has collapsed caused “a mass exodus of its citizens.”  Oz writer Bradford Winters is developing the concept as a television series for HBO. The show, Americatown, will tell the story of a cluster of newly arrived American immigrants who form a Chinatown-like district in a big foreign city.

Winters has been trying to see this concept through for the last decade in various incarnations in different mediums (miniseries, movie, book). Aside from it’s obvious topical elements, the concept seems like a great way to retell the immigrant story from a totally different perspective.

If I were HBO, I would get this project on the fast track. The only question is, would the budget of an HBO series be enough to create this unique near-futuristic world. The timeline of 25 to 40 years in the future puts it in a world which won’t be too “futuristic”. And telling the story in a poor immigrant district will probably cut down on futuristic elements.

source: THR