Alec Baldwin Running For NYC Mayor…In New HBO Pilot
Alec Baldwin is coming back to television, but he’s moving from 30 Rock to City Hall. He’s been cast as the Mayor of New York City in a new drama pilot from HBO. The untitled pilot is expected to get at least one season on HBO. Deadline reported that the deal includes a heavy penalty if the series doesn’t get a full season.
In the hour drama, Baldwin plays billionaire philanthropist Joe Byrne who finds himself running NYC after he’s drafted to replace the incumbent mayor who’s been taken out of office due to a tragedy. The pilot is expected to shoot in New York City in September.
Talking about his new character, Baldwin said, “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. 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?” Baldwin obviously doesn’t believe in spoiler alerts.
He also said that this project has been in the making for a long time with Cary Brokaw who won a Primetime Emmy for producing the HBO mini-series adaptation of “Angels in America”. Baldwin said, “Cary and I were going to do this together nine years ago, but I got detoured by Lorne Michaels and Tina Fey into 30 Rock”.
