HBO will produce a full season of "Treme," a drama series set against the unique New Orleans backdrop of second-line parades, brass bands and Mardi Gras Indians, bringing with it tens of millions of dollars in spending, dozens of jobs and national exposure for the city's music and culture.
Production is planned to begin as the coming hurricane season winds down in the fall, with episodes slated to air in 2010. Earlier, HBO ordered a total of 10 scripts, counting the pilot, though the season total could reach 12 episodes.
The economic impact of a locally produced HBO series is difficult to measure, but a 12-episode season would carry a budget of about $40 million and employ a large crew of both local and imported talent for several months.
"K-Ville, " the New Orleans-set Fox network drama that aired in fall 2007, was considered a bonanza for the local production community, at least until the show's cancellation about halfway through its first season.
"They're going to be in town for months on end, " Jennifer Day, director of the New Orleans Office of Film and Video, said of the "Treme" folks. "A feature film will prep for six weeks with a skeleton crew; they typically shoot in 30-45 days. With a series, you're constantly in production for four, five or six months at a time."
A pilot episode written by "The Wire" creator David Simon and co-creator Eric Overmyer was shot in March and April. HBO wasn't expected to decide the show's fate for several more weeks, but the rough cut of the pilot that Simon delivered -- minus final soundtrack music, which will play a major role in the series -- was enough to sell the premium cable network on the series.
"They saw the possibility of a narrative set in this world, " Simon said Wednesday. "Whatever else happens, we're going to get to tell a story, for at least one season, about a place that to me and Eric is endlessly fascinating."
The series' first-season story will begin several weeks after Hurricane Katrina and follow its characters -- based on real-life models Kermit Ruffins, Donald Harrison Jr. and Davis Rogan, among others -- at least through the first Mardi Gras after Katrina. Each subsequent season of the series would advance the story one year further from the storm.
Cast members include New Orleans native Wendell Pierce ("The Wire"), Clarke Peters ("The Wire"), Khandi Alexander ("The Corner"), Melissa Leo ("Frozen River"), Steve Zahn ("That Thing You Do!") and Kim Dickens ("Deadwood"). Ruffins plays himself in the pilot.
"It's going to have a very significant impact for a lot of people who make New Orleans music, " said Mark Samuels, founder and president of Basin Street Records, Ruffins' label. "I caught a little bit of a scene they were shooting toward the end of the pilot. What I saw and the people I saw made me feel that it's going to be real and true to New Orleans, with all of its good and all of its bad."
Simon, a former Baltimore newspaper reporter, wrote two books that served as templates for TV projects. "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets" was adapted by NBC for the police drama "Homicide: Life on the Street, " on which Simon later worked as a writer. Co-written with Ed Burns, "The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, " was later made into an HBO miniseries. Simon, Burns and Evan Wright adapted Wright's "Generation Kill, " a nonfiction book about the Iraq invasion, for an HBO miniseries of the same title.
"The Wire, " which concluded in March 2008 after five seasons, is considered by many critics to be among TV's finest dramas. Though Simon has described "The Wire" as a "love letter" to Baltimore, its story arcs centered on drug crime, political corruption, poor public schools and other symptoms of urban decay.
"K-Ville" tried to portray New Orleans Police Department officers struggling to rebuild their own lives while simultaneously defending a city devastated by Katrina floodwaters. It was derided by many local viewers for its off-pitch coinages -- gumbo party, anyone? -- and overheated cop-show conventions.
Simon, a frequent visitor to the city for years, and Overmyer, a longtime homeowner in the city, have taken steps to avoid such pitfalls, including hiring Times-Picayune reporter Lolis Eric Elie and local author Tom Piazza for the "Treme" writing staff.
Just like "K-Ville, " "Treme" will face a local audience that is stubbornly protective of its city's culture and characters, and wary about how they are depicted to the world.
"These story lines are extremely close to all of our hearts, " said Day, who has read the "Treme" pilot script. "It's a work of fiction, but it's so close to our reality.
"I always tell writers, we're a tough crowd."
"It's intimidating, " Simon said. "We may not have a 'gumbo party' moment, but I imagine we will engender a certain number of arguments about whether we got stuff right and whether the nuance is correct.
"On some level, it's fun to operate on a level where people are willing to take it seriously. If we don't get to that point, if people are dismissive, then we've done something bad."
c/o Weekly Beat
HBO has just ordered nine episodes of the series Tremé from The Wire writers David Simon and Eric Overmyer. A pilot has been shot and the series has been in development for some time. Cast members will include New Orleans native Wendell Pierce, also a member of The Wire cast. Tremé is a post-Katrina hour-long set in the New Orleans music scene and is being filmed there, with many local musicians and New Orleans-based "characters" included in the plot line. Tremé is the name of the iconic New Orleans neighborhood where many musicians live and learned their art, and Simon is a longtime New Orleans music fan. He has told the local press that the story lines would reach beyond the music scene to explore political corruption, the public housing controversy, the criminal justice system, and the struggle to rebuild the tourism industry. And it focuses on local music.
via Times-Pic:
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