“Law & Order” and “Chicago” network series franchise producer Dick Wolf and his Wolf Entertainment label is prepping the lavish period drama “American Babylon” – Wolf’s first go at a premium TV series.
The team behind HBO’s “The Pacific,” creator Bruce C. McKenna and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Robert Schenkkan, are writing the series based on Sally Denton & Roger Morris’s novel “The Money and the Power”.
Universal Television have acquired the rights to the book and the series will chronicle the epic story of the creation of Las Vegas – an American Dream written in blood and neon.
We follow the intersecting struggles of three families: a young mobster and his iron-willed wife, a fiercely ambitious black businessman, and a combat veteran turned journalist committed to finding the truth. Fictional characters mix with historical figures, including Lena Horne, JFK, The Rat Pack, and the elusive Howard Hughes.
Wolf, Schenkkan, McKenna and Tom Thayer (“Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee”) will executive produce. McKenna is showrunner, Schenkkan is penning multiple episodes including the pilot.
The project will be taken out to premium cable networks and streamers later this month.
Source: Deadline
