The Hollywood tax incentives bill really has brought a bunch o' big-screen productions to Massachusetts. One minute, Marty Scorsese needs extras to play concentration camp inmates in Taunton, the next Sandra Bullock is getting creamed by a drunk driver in Gloucester. And now it looks like we might get a TV series, the first crime drama to film here regularly since "Spenser for Hire" if memory serves.
TNT announced its drama development slate this morning, and included was the Boston-set "Morse Code," starring Donnie Wahlberg as a war hero turned DEA agent. As Wahlberg is also one of the producers, it seems a good bet we'll see it shoot here, at least in part. Walon Green of "Law & Order" is the writer-producer. Also on board is director/producer John Avnet, who helmed Wahlberg in NBC's "Boomtown" (pictured) and will direct the pilot.
TNT would like us to think of the show as being in the vein of
"The Departed," the Scorsese thriller that shot here and included Wahlberg his brothers
Mark and Robert Wahlberg in the cast. Of course, production will have to wait until he finishes that New Kids on The Block tour...
YO, A DISCLAIMER: Boston.com has a link to this item saying that the show will be shot here. Hold on, folks. Note the question mark in the headline. Note the words "might" and "good bet." I'm still waiting for an answer from the Mass. Film Office or TNT on where the show will be shot.
UPDATE: "Not that we know of" is the word from Mass. Film Office honcho Nick Paleologos on whether the show will film here. But still no word from TNT, and I reckon no one will no for sure till the New Kids tour finishes. I still have a feeling...
Donny Wahlberg was not in The Departed. Two of his brothers were.
Posted by: Amy | May 14, 2008 at 01:45 PM