Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: HBO is heading Upstate with a drama project in development from eOne Television and Philip Seymour Hoffman and Emily Ziff’s Cooper’s Town Prods. Upstate, which is being written by Brett C. Leonard  (HBO’s Hung) and actor-playwright Bob Glaudini, centers on recently laid-off Roy Perkins, who relocates his family to rural America to become a correctional officer in a new private prison run for profit. As the town and his family prosper, Roy encounters conflict and danger inside and outside the prison walls. Leonard, Glaudini, Hoffman and Ziff are executive producing with eOne’s Michael Rosenberg.

Hoffman has history at HBO. His only TV acting gig in the past 15 years was in the 2005 HBO movie Empire Falls, which earned him an Emmy nomination. And a year ago, Cooper’s Town set up its first TV project, a drama based on Samantha Peale’s novel The American Painter Emma Dial, at HBO. Meanwhile, Rosenberg serves as an executive producer on the pay cable network’s dark comedy series Hung, produced by eOne. Glaudini wrote the off-Broadway play Jack Goes Boating, which starred Hoffman. Hoffman later made the play into a movie, which marked his directorial debut. Glaudini wrote the movie adaptation, with Hoffman reprising his role.

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