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Show of the Week: Making of the Mob
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Making of the Mob. The six-part drama-doc for AMC tells the story of the New York mafia, spanning five decades running through to the early 1960s.
“It’s in the non-fiction category, but it feels scripted and will fit with [AMC’s] scripted programming and the AMC audience,” Stephen David, founder of Stephen David Entertainment, which is making the show.
It employs SDE’s distinctive drama doc style, where the emphasis is on the dramatic elements, complemented by footage.
“It’s a mix of archive and our footage and want it to feel as if with the drama component, you are watching footage we have found,” David says. “That’s why we don’t need name [actors], because it would be distracting. We try to find people that look like the real people.”
The series TXs on AMC this summer and eOne launches it internationally at MIPTV in April. David is confident that there is a global appeal to the series: “These are stories everyone knows, all over the world people know Al Capone and Lucky Luciano,” he says.
There is also a baked in international side to the mafia tales, given the mobsters came over from Europe.
“The stories also end up taking on an international angle, all of these mob people came to the US because they were kicked out by Mussolini, so they helped the US government to overthrow him,” David explains. “Then went to Italy and set up the [drug trafficking scheme] the French Connection.”
If the show works for AMC, the natural second and third seasons would move the action to Chicago and Las Vegas.
Upon picking up Making of the Mob rights, Stuart Baxter president, eOne Television International, said: “AMC is a great partner to work with, producing top quality programming, and The Making of the Mob: New York is event television at its best, with strong international appeal.”
The show: Making of the Mob
The producers: Stephen David Entertainment
The distributor: Entertainment One
The broadcaster: AMC (US)
The concept: Six-part drama-doc hybrid tracing 50 years of the history of the New York mafia
2 min read
