Alec Baldwin for New York City Mayor? Well, if he can’t be one in real life, he at least plans to play one on TV.
Deadline reported Friday that Baldwin will star in and executive produce an untitled series for HBO where he “will play Joe Byrne, a billionaire real estate developer philanthropist, and celebrated socialite/tabloid fixture, who is unexpectedly rocketed into NYC politics when tragedy strikes the incumbent mayor and he is drafted to replace him.”
Baldwin told Deadline that it will be a lighter version of “House of Cards” and “The Sopranos” that will explore the intersection of celebrity and politics in New York City.
“The character is a philanthropist, a big businessman and well-known tabloid fixture in New York. He’s Trump without the baggage, Bloomberg but a Democrat, George Soros if he was in real estate, a left-leaning Democrat who is also a businessman who understands the reality of how the city has to be run to create the right climate for the business community,”Baldwin told the website.
“He’s drafted for this run because the alternative would be catastrophe. We’ve seen from shows like Kevin Spacey’s House Of Cards that you can go anywhere creatively. He throws Kate Mara’s character in front of a subway train and you think, what the hell is going on? You can create these Shakespearean character arcs, and pull the curtain back on how New York City is actually run and how political careers are made and lost in the city.”
This is a very different description than was originally given when the project was first rumored over the summer.
Back in July, it was reported that Baldwin was developing a show where he would play “a Rob Ford-type mayor of New York City.”
The show is expected to begin filming in September.
