Anticipation

The first HBO series from Executive Producer Martin Scorsese, who also directed the pilot, is arriving on HBO this fall. The new trailer looks like something we haven't seen before, at least not with this theatrical level of casting, detail and intensity:

Preview Trailer #3

Looks like Steve Buscemi has his leading role of a lifetime, a Tony Soprano-type bad guy boss role but of an entirely different flavor, including the historical setting. It's a logical connection, as the writing Executive Producer is Terence Winter of The Sopranos fame. Michael Shannon as his FBI nemesis looks like he's got his breakout role. And Michael Kenneth Williams, beloved as Omar on The Wire, is also back in a completely different role for him, as a crime boss rather than a fugitive Robin Hood. Michael Pitt, Kelly MacDonald, Gretchen Mol are all theatrical-level actors, with Pitt and MacDonald particularly early in their careers, and they're in it as well. Michael Stuhlbarg, indelible in the Coen Bros A Serious Man plays Jewish crime figure Arnold Rothstein, the "man who fixed the 1919 World Series."

More info, including synopsis, at Geeks of Doom.

I don't know that I can name an upcoming movie, with the exception of Christopher Nolan's Inception, that I'm now looking forward to as much as this series. I can name another TV series -- the Season Four premiere of Mad Men later next month -- but there's no Scorsese movie left to come out this year, maybe the Eastwood with Matt Damon although that's still way under wraps, maybe The White Stripes documentary...

But with this trailer playing just before Sunday night's True Blood Season Three premiere, I'm betting that anticipation is going to shoot through the roof.

Ka-bam.