TVSquad

Gretchen Mol, who was last seen in last season's short-lived American television version of Life on Mars and in the feature An American Affair, will be going to HBO for the series Boardwalk Empire. She's scheduled to have a recurring role as a showgirl. The series is being produced by Martin Scorsese.

Gretchen Mol was on Life on Mars with Michael Imperioli, who was also on The Sopranos on HBO and was in Scorsese's Goodfellas. Boardwalk Empire star Steve Buscemi also appeared on The Sopranos. In short, all these people know each other and it's definitely a case of cast inbreeding. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Seriously, Gretchen Mol is a terrific actress and was fantastic in The Notorious Bettie Page. Given the talent already behind Boardwalk Empire, it was likely to be a fantastic series. Now its volume just went up to 11.

We've been following the progress of Boardwalk Empire here at TV Squad for awhile now. Don't take my word for it; click that link if you don't believe me. HBO was waiting to get a look at the pilot, directed by executive producer Martin Scorsese, to see if they wanted to move forward with it.

Of course, all things were looking good, and who really expects Scorsese to hand in crap, but now it's finally official. HBO has given a 12-episode commitment to Boardwalk Empire, including that pilot.

The series takes place in 1920s Atlantic City and features Steve Buscemi as an important city figure, as well as a bootlegger. I absolutely love it when HBO does period pieces like this. They seem to excel at authentically bringing these bygone eras to stunning life.

Prohibition was a tumultuous time in this country, and I can just imagine how intense things got in a hotbed for seedy behavior like Atlantic City. And then there's Buscemi. Brilliant, unpredictable, I can't imagine anyone better to play a character who's described as "equal parts politician and gangster." HBO's hit streak looks to keep on going.

I must confess that I really don't pay that much attention to TV ratings. I realize that I'm just one girl, and whether I love a show or not doesn't make a wit of difference as to whether other people will love it -- and love it enough to keep it on the air. As a TV writer, I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that TV shows come and go, and sometimes nobody watches the good ones, which results in them leaving the air far too soon.

But I've found myself gravitating towards HBO shows, because they seem to be consistently good, no matter the ratings. Sometimes I'm crazy about the shows right off the bat. Such was the case with True Blood, which I review here on TV Squad.

Michael Lombardo and Richard Plepler of HBO held an executive session at the beginning of HBO's star-studded presentation. Among the news:

• The entire Sunday summer lineup: Entourage, True Blood, and Hung will be coming back next summer.
• They've ordered an animated series from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant based on their podcasts with the ever-entertaining Karl Pilkington.
• On a third season of Flight of the Conchords: "We're ready when they're ready."
• The pilot of Boardwalk Empire, directed by Martin Scorsese, has been delivered to HBO. It will be picked up based on what they see. They like what they see so far.
• No more Little Britain USA, but they are working with the producers to create specials with all-new characters.

More coming. Stay tuned to our Twitter feed for the latest updates.

A year ago at this time, who would have guessed that Jay Leno would be leaving late night and NBC would be handing him five hours of prime time instead? Who would have predicted CBS continuing to dominate in the ratings or that ABC's sophomore series like Eli Stone and Pushing Daisies would stumble and fall so completely after being off the air all last spring? Predictors from last January were on target about there being a writers' strike; that did happen and it was definitely not a good thing.

Fortunately, I don't see a SAG strike in the future. However, here are ten things I'm betting will happen by the time the ball drops on December 31st.

1. Martin Scorsese will be the next big thing on HBO. He's producing a drama based on the book Boardwalk Empire. HBO is overdue to launch another big series in The Sopranos tradition. Boardwalk Empire seems to have all the right elements: violence, sex, gambling, and Oscar-winning, iconic director Martin Scorsese.

I'm crazy for HBO, and one of the shows I'm really looking forward to is Boardwalk Empire, a pilot executive produced by Martin Scorsese (who's also directing), Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson, and Terence Winter (who's also penning the pilot).

Based on the Nelson Johnson book Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City, the project chronicles the 1920s origins of Atlantic City, New Jersey. From what I've read, it sounds like a mix of The Departed, The Sopranos and Goodfellas -- all favorites of mine. And the cast they've got lined up couldn't be better.

Steve Buscemi plays Nucky Johnson, a businessman who runs a liquor distribution ring at the beginning of Prohibition. Michael Pitt (pictured) is in negotiations to play Jimmy Darmody, a bright, young, ruthless WWI veteran who serves as a flunky for Nucky, but yearns for more power.

We have previously reported that Academy Award-winning film director Martin Scorsese and Mark Wahlberg were developing a series for cable. Now, it looks like Scorsese might be directing the pilot of the HBO series Boardwalk Empire which chronicles the rise of Atlantic City in the 1920s. He's directed about casinos before, so the subject matter should be old hat to him.

Admittedly, at this stage of his career this seems a bit like slumming. He has once before directed for television (an episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories in the '80s). Honestly, where else is there to go? He's won the Oscar already. He's even directed Michael Jackson. It's his series (he's the executive producer along with Wahlberg), so everybody wins with this deal.

I note how he has gone away from his native setting of New York City in his more recent work (for example, The Departed took place in Boston), and now he's decided to cross the Hudson River into New Jersey. As a Jersey native, I can only say: it's about time!

It sounds like HBO is looking for another series in The Sopranos tradition. Or maybe it was The Sopranos that was in the Scorsese tradition? Either way, we recently told you about Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese's HBO project Boardwalk Empire (teaming with Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson of Entourage fame), and now we can report that they've hired Terence Winter to pen the script for Boardwalk Empire. That's the name of Nelson Johnson's book about the dark underbelly in the rise and fall of Atlantic City, on which this project will be based. Call me crazy, but this sounds like perfect material for Scorsese's sensibilities, even if he's producing rather than directing.