DURHAM -- The Bull City may not have oil wells and wide-open spaces, but it does have the looks for an updated "Dallas."
Or so says Roman Gabriel (no, no kin to the former Los Angeles Rams and N.C. State quarterback), who has plans for shooting a cable-TV series in town, starting next month.
"We are working with him very closely right now," said Sandy Freeman of the Triangle Regional Film Commission, and Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau CEO Shelly Green said her staff has been working with Gabriel on locations and permits.
"It's an upscale, multi-cultural show," Gabriel said, about characters living in the hip downtown of a reviving industrial town. "In the vein of the old 'Dallas.' "
Like "Dallas," the hit Friday-night sitcom of the 1970s and 80s that featured scheming oilman J.R. Ewing and his semi-functional family, Gabriel's planned "High Street Hills" is meant for a prime-time evening slot.
Unlike "Dallas," though, "High Street Hills" has ethnic variety among its characters, notably an American-born Japanese who moved to Japan and comes home for a plot-twisting visit.
"It's going to have a very real feeling but with very cinematic sensibilities," he said. "Showcasing a lot of the architecture" in downtown Durham. "High Street" characters will be jetting overseas for some episodes, too, he said -- not unlike "Dallas," in which one story line sent Ewings to South America and another had J.R. fomenting a revolution overseas.
Gabriel, whose LinkedIn site describes him as "motion picture, television, and viral web producer director and cinematographer," lives in Los Angles and said he is collaborating with a Richmond, Va. writer. He said nine of a planned 13 to 18 episodes are written.
"We're in pre-production now," he said, and while running a few weeks behind his planned schedule he said he expects to start filming in April.
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