Electus Partners with Michael Franzese on Mafia Drama

Electus has aligned with former crime boss and author Michael Franzese for the scripted series American Royalty, a modern take on the crime genre exploring the leading mob families.

Based on the true story Quitting the Mob: How the “Yuppie Don” Left the Mafia and Lived to Tell His Story, American Royalty explores the life of Michael “Yuppie Don” Franzese, a former New York mobster and caporegime of the Colombo crime family who was heavily involved in the gasoline tax rackets in the ’80s. Producers Moshe Diamant (The Black Dahlia, Timecop) and Michael Tadross Jr. (Category 5, LBJ) are on board.

“American Royalty presents a modern take on a beloved genre, and its unflinching look at life inside the Mafia will captivate viewers around the world,” said John Pollak, the president of worldwide television and Electus International. “The series will be comprised of tales spanning decades and generations, using real accounts to tell the story.”

“American Royalty is a Mafia version of Game of Thrones, but with an important distinction: everything you see onscreen is true,” said Franzese. “You may have seen these legendary figures in documentaries, but never in a scripted series that really explores who they were and what they controlled, as told by one of their own. American Royalty is the real story of the mob’s business, activities, players, what they controlled and how eventually they all went down—informed by my own eyewitness accounts, testimonies and personal writings.”