Wed Oct 1, 2008 — by Josh Wigler

Welcome to 'Americatown'

Futuristic Drama Series Heads to HBO

HBO has announced the development of Americatown, a new drama series project from writer Bradford Winters and producers Tom Fontana, Barry Levinson, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy.

Americatown is "set 25-40 years into the future when the precipitous decline of the U.S. leads to a mass exodus of its citizens," says The Hollywood Reporter. The show focuses on newly arrived American immigrants in a large foreign city.

"By presenting Americans as immigrants in the near future, as both underdog and hero in the drama of global dislocation, we substitute a mirror for the rancor that informs much of the partisan debates on immigration," Winters said of the series.

The show focuses both on immigration and on potential financial meltdown, which is quite topical given current circumstances.

Says Winters of the irony: "What is happening right now is such a terrible disaster for so many people and, in some ways, I think makes it less hard to argue that the events in Americatown are impossible."

Winters has worked with Tom Fontana before on HBO's prison drama, Oz. His two brothers, Scott William Winters and Dean Winters, were series regulars on the program as Cyril and Ryan O'Reily, both brothers and inmates within the titular prison facility. Though no casting announcements have been made, it's likely that one or both actors will appear on the show in some capacity.

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