HBO Wants to Know 'How to Make It'

Zap2It.com | July 30, 2008

Mark Wahlberg

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Mark Wahlberg-produced pilot gets go-ahead; so does 'Fat Girl'

HBO has added two more pilots, including one from "Entourage" producers Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson, to an already hefty roster.

Wahlberg and Levinson will executive produce "How to Make It in America," a comedy about three young New Yorkers hustling to achieve the American dream. Ian Edelman is writing the pilot, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Additionally, the cable network has optioned Liza Palmer's novel "Conversations with the Fat Girl" for series development. Anne Thomopoulos ("Rome") and Anna Garduno will exec produce, Variety says.

The novel centers on a young, plus-sized woman named Maggie, whose newly thin (thanks to gastric bypass surgery) friend Olivia is getting married and drifting away from her. After a confrontation, Maggie sets about improving her own life, pursuing a better job and breaking the ice with a long-time crush.

"How to Make It," meanwhile, will focus on the downtown scene in New York. Rob Weiss, another "Entourage" exec producer attached to the project, tells the HR that the show is "a fun ride" that will look at "the cross section of people [living downtown] and how they relate to the relevant subcultures in NYC."

The two shows join a pilot roster that includes David Simon's New Orleans drama "Treme," the Atlantic City-set "Boardwalk Empire" (another Wahlberg-Levinson project) and comedies "Hung" and "Bored to Death."