Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums says a proposed HBO television series that would examine the world of prostitution in Oakland “goes against our vision of Oakland as the Model City and does a disservice to our residents and visitors alike.”
In a statement released by his office, Dellums said, “While I understand that there are certain benefits to having a major film done in our city, I am not willing to support this project at this time.”
Dellums said, “The people of Oakland have come too far to have our city’s name trampled upon in the name of entertainment. I am willing to further discuss this project with HBO when time permits.”
Dellums’ statement comes in the wake of a Dec. 8 memo by Ami Zins, Oakland’s film coordinator, in which she said the proposed show, which is called “Gentlemen of Leisure,” will present “an opportunity for Oakland to be seen internationally on a regular basis within the context of a noir drama, while also depicting the many sides of Oakland of which we are all so proud.”
Zins said that when she first heard about the possibility that the program would be filmed in Oakland, “I was extremely concerned about the negative effect it could have on Oakland, our image to outsiders and our sense of pride in the many positive aspects of the city.”
But she said that after lengthy conversations with executive producer Polly Anthony and screenwriter Evan Reilly, “I am convinced that Oakland stands to benefit from the collaboration.”
Zins said the show will be a one-hour dramatic series “which will center around a pimp who is now in his 40s who is struggling to change his life so that he, his wife, who was his first prostitute, and their child can live a legal, safe upper-middle class life.”
She said the quality and tone of the series “will be reminiscent of HBO’s recent pre-eminent series ‘The Sopranos,'” which revolved around a mafia family.
Zins said HBO currently is without a trademark urban drama and “Gentlemen of Leisure” is a possible contender for that distinction.
An HBO spokesperson said today that the project is only in very early development and HBO hasn’t made a commitment to do a series or even a pilot.
Any discussion about where the possible program would be filmed is premature, the spokesperson said.
She said Anthony and Reilly work with HBO but aren’t HBO employees.
Zins said that Anthony told her that although she has never lived in Oakland, “she has spent quite a bit of time in Oakland and chose Oakland as the location for the show out of appreciation for our diversity, our beauty and our rich musical history.”
Zins said the show will be set in Oakland and Anthony plans to film the entire series in Oakland, primarily on location.
“Oakland will be identified as the city in which the story takes place and will be featured as a character unto itself as a city with a great diversity of people, culture, arts, architecture and geography,” Zins said in her memo.
The characters and locations to be depicted in the series “would represent a wide spectrum of those found in Oakland,” she said.
In addition, “Our collaboration also holds the potential to encourage the producers to portray some of Oakland’s model programs that seek to address and remedy the problem of prostitution within the context of the show,” Zins said.
Zins said that if the program is produced in Oakland it will employ local crew and local actors, patronize local businesses renting and purchasing goods and services for an economic impact “estimated to be in the dens of millions of dollars.”
However, she added that, “at this point time it is not possible to be more accurate.”
Zins said research into the impact of “The Wire,” an HBO crime series set in Baltimore, showed that the economic impact was about $35 million per season.
She said, “Representatives from both the Baltimore Film Office and the Baltimore Museum both testified that even though the content of the stories depicted in ‘The Wire’ were crime based, the series has had, and continues to have, positive economic, cultural and tourism impacts on Baltimore.”