Electus, Michael Franzese tackle mob

US-based multimedia studio Electus has agreed a partnership with author and former crime boss Michael Franzese to create a drama about leading mob families.

John Pollak

American Royalty is being developed with producers Moshe Diamant (The Black Dahlia) and Michael Tadross Jr (Category 5, LBJ) and is described as a modern spin on the crime genre that “takes viewers deep into the dark trenches of the leading mob families.”

The show promises to offer a “revealing and uncompromising” portrait of mob life between the 1950s and 1980s in the US, following Franzese’s book Quitting the Mob: How the “Yuppie Don” Left the Mafia and Lived to Tell His Story.

It centres on the lives of Franzese and his father, who were intimately involved in La Cosa Nostra’s rule in New York. A broadcaster is yet to be attached to the project.

“American Royalty presents a modern take on a beloved genre, and its unflinching look at life inside the Mafia will captivate viewers around the world,” said John Pollak, president of worldwide television and sales arm Electus International.

“The series will comprise tales spanning decades and generations, using real accounts to tell the story.”

Franzese added: “You may have seen these legendary figures in documentaries, but never in a scripted series that really explores who they were and what they controlled, as told by one of their own.”