CLOSEUP ON CHRIS
SCREENWRITER: Man behind Intelligence talks prohibition and writing for ‘Boardwalk’
Creator of Da Vinci’s Inquest Chris Haddock now writing for Boardwalk Empire
When it comes to prohibition, both past and present, there is one common thread that runs through both stories: The gangster.
As the guy behind Intelligence, a modern TV tale of organized crime, and now one of the writers of Boardwalk Empire, the 1920s-prohibition era series on HBO, Chris Haddock knows this fact first-hand.
“I tell you, it is fascinating just how almost parallel the times are,” said Haddock, home recently in Vancouver on a writing break from Boardwalk Empire.
“You can take drug prohibition, booze prohibition, they are the same, Both are a huge boon financially to those who are able to scoop a bit of it, so you can see why it exists.
“It is not a moral question at all,” Haddock added. “The philosophy of dry was presented as a moral argument by many of these evangelicals and all kinds of people, even the Ku Klux Klan at the time, and you can really see that was just taken advantage of by all these grafters.”
It was Haddock’s handling of grafters, specifically Jimmy Reardon (Ian Tracey) and his associates from
Intelligence that got Haddock into the writing room for the multiple award-winning HBO hit series. An executive at the network saw
Intelligence and the light bulb went on and Haddock was asked if he wanted to write for the show that focuses on a crooked Atlantic City politician and foretells the rise to power of real life East Coast gangsters with names like Capone, Luciano and Rothstein.
The decision to join a show run by creator Terence Winter ( The Sopranos), has Martin Scorsese as an executive producer, and stars Steve Buscemi, is what you could call a nobrainer. But, that provenance aside, the timing was also perfect for Haddock, who also gave Canadian viewers the long-running Da Vinci’s
Inquest (shown in 140 countries) and Da Vinci’s City Hall.
“Prior to Boardwalk I took a deliberate entire year off to do nothing at all,” said Haddock. “I needed that time to just squeeze the sponge dry. Now it’s fantastic, I have a bunch of things on the go.”
A bunch of things translates to show ideas, but at the moment he is “down the mine,” writing the third episode for season three of Boardwalk.
“It’s a gas, oh man, partly because it is something that I haven’t done in a while and certainly not under these terms and conditions,” said Haddock. “There’s really some very interesting people in the room. And you know what it is like when you get really interesting people together — it is going to be entertaining.”
Those terms and conditions translate basically into money and support from HBO. The Martin Scorsese-directed pilot for Boardwalk cost $18 million, which included the construction of an Atlantic City pier in a Brooklyn lot for $5 million.
“HBO has embraced the thing from the get-go and given it a healthy budget,” said Haddock, who often knocked heads with CBC over money and promotion for his shows. “You know that allows you to really get into the period.”
But getting into this period can be tough, as this fictional world, adapted by Winters from the non-fiction book of the same name, is full of reallife characters.
“Sure there’s sumptuous production design and all that, but it doesn’t cure your research issues. Which is we have a show that sort of mixes historical figures so you can’t really play around too much with what they did and didn’t do,” said Haddock.
“We can invent all the little stuff but we can’t kill Charlie [Lucky] Luciano for example. But that mix of fact and fiction is a challenge and it’s the exciting part of it, because you do get to get back there and have your way with history in a way that is very exciting.”
But whatever “way” Haddock and the other writers may plan on having with history won’t be disclosed for a little while longer yet — when the show returns to TV in the fall.
“If I talked [about the show], believe me, they would throw me off the pier,” said Haddock.