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What’s hot in Hollywood? The mob.
The success of HBO’s miniseries “The Sopranos” and Warner Bros.’ feature “Analyze This” only underscores Hollywood’s fascination with the underworld. Actor George Clooney is currrently developing a mob series for CBS. Martin Scorsese and Nick Pileggi are working on a script about mob banker Michele Sidona for Disney. This July, Showtime will present a six-hour miniseries, “Bonanno: A Godfather’s Story,” starring Edward James Olmos and Martin Landau.
The latter series is based on the life of the New York mobster, who ran a Mafia family for 37 years before retiring and moving to Arizona. It’s an insider’s view of the underworld from Prohibition to the Kennedy assassination. Ironically, the miniseries has been in the works for more than five years and originated at Fox, which dropped it after a change in management. Showtime has been fine-tuning the project, which has the blessing of the Bonanno family, for the past three years.
Why is the public fascinated with the mob? Mark Zakarin, executive vice president of original programming at Showtime Networks, said the frustrations of modern life make the underworld compelling.
“We live in a semi-civilized business world, but you often feel like smashing your enemies but don’t have the ability to do so unless you hire a lawyer,” he said. “In the mob fantasy, you have the ability to send out your hit man and take care of them.”
Zakarin said viewers are also intrigued by the code of the Mafia and the tight family structure.
“There is a strong moral code, which you break at your own peril,” he said. “In the modern world, life is filled with a bunch of grays and imponderables. There is something appealing about this very simple moral code. You protect those who are with you and have strong blood ties to you.”
According to insiders, ABC was close to making a new deal with Tim Allen to return for yet another season of “Home Improvement,” but a hitch came up when Allen insisted on having the entire cast return as well. All the players agreed except Patricia Richardson, who played his long-suffering wife. The reason? The show had lost its juice creatively, she said.
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NBC tapes the first HDTV edition of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” today (April 26) at Studio 1 in Burbank.
Paramount’s once-feared “Hard Copy” went out like a whipped puppy last week. The tabloid was cancelled thanks to continued low ratings and poor time periods.
