Boardwalk Empire

Boardwalk Empire is an American period crime drama television series created by Terence Winter for the premium cable channel HBO. The series is set chiefly in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition era of the 1920s. The series stars Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson. Winter, a Primetime Emmy Award-winning screenwriter and producer, created the show, inspired by Nelson Johnson's 2002 non-fiction book Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City, about the historical criminal kingpin Enoch L. Johnson.
The pilot episode was directed by Martin Scorsese and produced at a cost of $18 million. On September 1, 2009, HBO picked up the series for an additional 11 episodes. The series premiered on September 19, 2010, and its five-season run of 56 episodes ended on October 26, 2014.
Boardwalk Empire received widespread critical acclaim throughout its run, particularly for its visual style and basis on historical figures, as well as for Buscemi's lead performance. The series received 57 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including two for Outstanding Drama Series, winning 20. The series also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama in 2011 and two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2011 and 2012.

Series overview

Boardwalk Empire is a period drama focusing on Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, a political figure who rises to prominence and controls Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition period of the 1920s and 1930s. Nucky interacts with historical characters in both his personal and political life, including mobsters, politicians, government agents, and the common folk who look up to him. The federal government also takes an interest in the bootlegging and other illegal activities in the area, sending agents to investigate possible mob connections as well as Nucky's lifestyle—expensive and lavish for a county political figure. The final season jumps ahead seven years to 1931 as Prohibition nears its end.

Cast and characters

Main cast

Steve Buscemi as Enoch "Nucky" Thompson – the corrupt treasurer of Atlantic County and its most powerful political figure. He is often involved with various mafias and mobs out of New York and Chicago, as well as bootlegging liquor throughout Atlantic City. He is loosely based on the Atlantic City political boss Enoch L. Johnson.
Michael Pitt as James "Jimmy" Darmody – Nucky's onetime protégé, an honor student who left Princeton to serve in World War I. He works briefly for Nucky before striking out on his own into organized crime. He is married to Angela, and is the son of Gillian Darmody and Commodore Louis Kaestner.
Kelly Macdonald as Margaret Thompson – a young widow and mother who turns to Nucky for help out of an abusive marriage, becoming his mistress and later his wife.
Michael Shannon as Nelson Van Alden / George Mueller – a former straitlaced Bureau of Prohibition agent on the run. Under the alias "George Mueller", he becomes a bootlegger in the Chicago area working as the muscle for Dean O'Banion's organization and in Johnny Torrio's organization.
Shea Whigham as Elias "Eli" Thompson – Nucky's younger brother and sheriff of Atlantic County, who works as part of Nucky's organization and later Al Capone's organization. He has numerous children, including eldest son Willie. He is based on Alf Johnson.
Aleksa Palladino as Angela Darmody – Jimmy's wife and the mother of his young son.
Michael Stuhlbarg as Arnold Rothstein – a powerful New York City gangster and multimillionaire who does business with Nucky. Charlie Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and Benjamin Siegel work for him.
Stephen Graham as Al Capone – a violent Chicago gangster who is the right-hand man of Chicago crime boss Johnny Torrio.
Vincent Piazza as Charles "Lucky" Luciano – a hot-headed young New York City gangster and associate of Rothstein's.
Paz de la Huerta as Lucy Danziger – Nucky's former mistress who gets involved with Van Alden.
Michael Kenneth Williams as Albert "Chalky" White – a powerful African-American gangster in Atlantic City.
Anthony Laciura as Edward Anselm "Eddie" Kessler – Nucky's loyal butler.
Paul Sparks as Mieczyslaw "Mickey Doyle" Kuzik – a doltish Atlantic City bootlegger who works under Nucky.
Dabney Coleman as Commodore Louis Kaestner – Nucky's mentor and predecessor in Atlantic City, and Jimmy's father. John Ellison Conlee portrays a young Commodore in the season-five flashbacks. The character of Kaestner is loosely based on Louis Kuehnle.
Jack Huston as Richard Harrow – a former Army marksman who allies with Jimmy. Disfigured in the war, he wears a tin mask over half of his face.
Gretchen Mol as Gillian Darmody – Jimmy's mother and Nucky's longtime friend.
Charlie Cox as Owen Sleater – an Irish Republican Army volunteer who works for Nucky and has an affair with Margaret.
Bobby Cannavale as Gyp Rosetti – a ruthless gangster who challenges Nucky.
Ron Livingston as Roy Phillips – a Pinkerton detective who poses as a wealthy out-of-town businessman who gets involved with Gillian Darmody to prosecute her for murder.
Jeffrey Wright as Dr. Valentin Narcisse – a Harlem-based philanthropist, doctor of divinity, and follower of Marcus Garvey's, who plans to take over the heroin trade in Atlantic City. The character was inspired by Casper Holstein.
Ben Rosenfield as Willie Thompson – Eli's eldest son, a Temple University student and later a lawyer with the United States Department of Justice.
Recurring characters

Production

Development

Emmy Award-winner Terence Winter, who served as executive producer and writer on the HBO series The Sopranos, was hired on June 4, 2008, to adapt the nonfiction book Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City. Winter had already been interested in creating a series set in the 1920s, feeling that it had never properly been explored before, so he decided to focus his adaptation of the book section about Prohibition. On September 1, 2009, it was announced that Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese would direct the pilot. It would be the first time he had directed an episode of television since an episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories in 1986. The production would be very ambitious, with some even speculating it would be too large scale for television. "I kept thinking, 'This is pointless. How can we possibly afford a boardwalk, or an empire? says creator Terence Winter. "We can't call it 'Boardwalk Empire' and not see a boardwalk." The production would eventually build a boardwalk in an empty lot in Brooklyn, New York, at the cost of $5 million. Despite a reported budget of up to $50 million, the pilot's final budget came in at $18 million.
On why he chose to return to television, Scorsese said, "What's happening the past nine to 10 years, particularly at HBO, is what we had hoped for in the mid-'60s with films being made for television at first. We'd hoped there would be this kind of freedom and also the ability to create another world and create long-form characters and story. That didn't happen in the 1970s, 1980s, and in the 1990s, I think. And of course... HBO is a trailblazer in this. I've been tempted over the years to be involved with them because of the nature of long-form and their development of character and plot." He went on to praise HBO by saying, "A number of the episodes, in so many of their series, they're thoughtful, intelligent brilliantly put together... It's a new opportunity for storytelling. It's very different from television of the past."

Casting

"Scorsese is an actor magnet," Winter said. "Everybody wants to work with him. I had all these pictures on my wall and I thought, 'I'd really better write some good stuff for these people. In casting the role of Nucky Thompson, Winter wanted to stray from the real life Johnson as much as possible. "If we were going to cast accurately what the real Nucky looked like, we'd have cast Jim Gandolfini." The idea of casting Steve Buscemi in the lead role came about when Scorsese mentioned wanting to work with the actor, whom Winter knew well having worked with him on The Sopranos. Winter sent the script out to Buscemi, who responded very enthusiastically. "I just thought, 'Wow. I'm almost sorry I've read this, because if I don't get it, I'm going to be so sad.' My response was 'Terry, I know you're looking at other actors'... and he said, 'No, no, Steve, I said we want you. Explained Scorsese, "I love the range he has, his dramatic sense, but also his sense of humor."
The casting of Buscemi was soon followed by Michael Pitt, best known for his roles in films such as Murder by Numbers, The Dreamers, and in the television series Dawson's Creek. He was soon joined by Kelly Macdonald, Vincent Piazza and Michael Shannon, who had just received an Oscar nomination for his role in the Sam Mendes film Revolutionary Road.

Filming

Filming for the pilot took place at various locations in and around New York City in June 2009. In creating the visual effects for the series, the company turned to Brooklyn-based effects company Brainstorm Digital. Says Glenn Allen, visual effects producer for Boardwalk Empire and co-founder of Brainstorm, "It's our most complex job to date. Everything is HD now, so we have to treat it like a feature film." "Anytime you get to work on a period piece, it's more fun," comments visual effects artist Chris "Pinkus" Wesselman, who used archival photographs, postcards, and architectural plans to recreate the Atlantic City boardwalks as accurately as possible. "We got to explore what the old Atlantic City was really like. The piers were one of the toughest parts because every summer they would change—new houses, new advertisements." It took two months for the firm to complete all the visual effects for the pilot. Boardwalk Empire began filming on location at Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island in March 2012. A 300-foot long, 45-foot wide replica of the Atlantic City Boardwalk was constructed in Greenpoint for filming.