Actor Robert De Niro and director Spike Lee are combining their forces to put together a television series titled Alphaville about Manhattan's Alphabet City. The show will air on Showtime, putting it alongside series like Dexter and Weeds. Will this be the next big thing on TV?
The Hollywood Reporter tells us this about the new show:
Alphaville is an ensemble drama chronicling Alphabet City's gritty and tumultuous past before it became the gentrified East Village. Set during the 1980s, it will re-create the neighborhood's eclectic mix of struggling artists and musicians living alongside Puerto Rican and black families. Along with its growing bohemian and celebrity population that also included graffiti artists, break-dancers, rappers and DJs, the neighborhood was plagued by illegal drug activity and violent crime.
It will be on the same cable network that airs hit shows like Californication and United States of Tara. De Niro is going to be an executive producer and it's likely that Lee will direct the pilot episode.
Lee hasn't had a lot of big hits with his films -- pretty much ever, with the exception of Inside Man -- so it will be interesting to see if he can make his mark on the small screen.
Lee and De Niro are both native New Yorkers, so this seems like an ideal project for them to pool their resources on. What will be really interesting, though, is if De Niro has a regular part on the show, or even a frequent cameo. He hasn't spent much (any) of his career on television, and it might be a new avenue for him to take.
So is there any interest in the TV-watching public in this show, or will this fade away as quickly as it came to be?
Source: George Napolitano/Getty Images
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