HBO Picks Up Scorsese's Series Boardwalk Empire

You know what I want to see? A TV show starring Steve Buscemi based on a pilot directed by Martin Scorsese. Guess what we'll all get to see very soon: a 1920's period show set in Atlantic City, starring Buscemi, based on a Scorsese pilot. Everybody wins, or at least everyone with HBO.

Variety reports that HBO has picked up eleven episodes of Boardwalk Empire, which features Buscemi as Nucky Johnson (hey, it's the '20s!), a businessman turned rum runner during Prohibition. Also in the cast are Michael Shannon, Michael Kenneth Williams, Dabney Coleman (sorry, Dabney Fucking Coleman), Kelly McDonald and Michael Pitt. Whenever I mention Pitt I find that a lot of people hold serious ire towards the guy, but I actually like him. And to see him get the chance to develop a character in the context of a series like this should be really interesting. And having a lot of new work from Buscemi is just wonderful.

The series is set for next year, and episodes will shoot this fall in New York City. The show was created by Terence Winter, an executive producer on The Sopranos. Scorsese will stay on as an executive producer, and I'm probably not alone in hoping that he'll end up directing another episode.

HitFix quotes HBO president of programming Michael Lombardo, who talked about the series last month when the network was waiting for Scorsese to deliver his cut of the pilot:

We are anxiously awaiting a cut from Mr. Scorsese so we can green light the series...By everything we've seen, it's fantastic. It's big. It's everything we hoped it would be. It's a tremendous cast with a tremendous writer... And really, a master director. So we're very hopeful, very excited, and our fingers are crossed.

Things obviously worked out. Then again, how does HBO not greenlight a series with this credit roster?