Remember Denny from Grey’s Anatomy? Or Nancy Botwin’s late Mr. Botwin on Weeds? In real life, he’s known as Jeffrey Dean Morgan (or “doesn’t that guy look like Javier Bardem?”) and he’s been making his way into more feature films like last year’s The Losers and 2009’s Watchmen. Now, he’s looking at a chance to step away from all the ensemble action and step into the lead in an upcoming 10-episode drama, Magic City.
The Starz show is set in the 1960s and carries a suave leading man as he helms Miami’s first big hotel and the hotbed for collisions between mobsters, politicians and entertainers. Morgan would play the hotelier who gets caught up in all the madness as Fidel Castro’s hold on Cuba shuts down the Havana gambling scene and pushes the crime scene into Miami.
It looks like the show may being trying to piggy back off the success of Mad Men’s historical and nostalgic, yet scathing look at the 60s in the U.S., but not obnoxiously so. The subject is distant enough that while they may gain interest because of the time period, we can be sure the Starz project will be its own thing.
Magic City will begin filming in Miami shortly and plans are in the works to release the series in 2012.
Source: Deadline
