So it’s apparently the week for news on new shows from HBO.

Late in 2008 rumors started circulating of a Martin Scorsese deal with HBO to direct a pilot based on Nelson Johnson’s book Boardwalk Empire, a history of the rise of Atlantic City during the years of Prohibition during the 1920s. The easy comparison is that it’s “The Sopranos” set eighty years earlier. Steve Buscemi signed on as the lead, and Michael K. Williams (Omar from “The Wire”) also snagged a role. Well, HBO has decided to pick up a full season order of 12 episodes, including the pilot, which is now in production. The show is slated for a 2010 airing.

Scorsese is not technically signed on to do anything more than direct the pilot and one other episode, although the studio insists that he will be creatively involved.

And now, apropos of nothing, Bruce Willis singing Under the Boardwalk.

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Steven Lloyd Wilson is the sci-fi and history editor. You can email him here or follow him on Twitter.