• by David Goetzl , May 4, 2006

HBO's latest experiment with reality programming has its roots in a New York Times article four months ago. The network plans to film a pilot about the amorous, edgy, and close-knit residents of a Lower East Side apartment building that was the subject of the January piece.

HBO has signed celebrated director/producer R.J. Cutler--who burst onto the scene with "The War Room" documentary about the 1992 Clinton campaign, and recently has been churning out television fare such as FX's "Black. White." and A&E's "Oh, Baby ... Now What?"--to serve as showrunner through his Actual Reality Pictures production house.

Cutler has met with the 11 residents of the building on Rivington Street who would be the focus of the show. The residents, however, still need to reach an agreement with HBO--although the attorney representing them, Marc Simon, said he's hopeful that negotiations can be completed soon.

Representatives for HBO and Cutler declined comment.

The pilot could be filmed as soon as late May or early June. The show would be part "Real World" and part "Friends," with an element of "Sex and the City" mixed in. It would chronicle the personal and professional lives of the hip twenty- and thirty-somethings who live together in the Rivington building. New York's super-trendy Lower East Side would serve as a backdrop and secondary focus.

"The Rivington group is a collection of diverse and hip individuals all possessing a combination of passion, spirit, and ambition," said Simon, an attorney with New York firm Dreier LLP. "And their personalities and journeys, as well as their Lower East Side camaraderie, should translate very well for television."

Among the gang of 11 (not all the Rivington residents have opted to participate in the show) are two musicians, a nanny, a woman who works at Sotheby's, a Wall Streeter, and an art director at shoe company Steve Madden who's also a painter. Two of the individuals are a couple; the rest are active singles.

The Rivington building is somewhat unique in oft-insular New York--since residents are close to one another, party together, and have been known to get involved romantically. The animated life inside the building is expected to provide a captivating aspect of the series, but so are the residents' lives outside the building, whether it be on the job at vogue Steve Madden or a musician's shot at the big time.

The project emanates from a Sunday feature in The New York Times, which made life in the building seem like a college dorm with patio parties, blasting music, romantic entanglements, and round-the-clock opportunities to just hang out and chat.

"There have been at least six sexual relationships in the building, along with an untold number of angrily slammed doors and tearful reconciliations," the article said about the intra-building affairs of the heart--before suggesting that the building's leitmotif is "how long can one continue to enjoy the bacchanalian pleasures of youth before one craves a quieter adult existence?"

A collection of production companies were interested in turning life in the building into a reality show, but Telepictures Productions secured the rights (and in the process agreed to pay some of the residents' rent for two months as negotiations unfolded). But Telepictures, which falls under the Warner Bros. Entertainment umbrella, reached an agreement with Time Warner corporate sibling HBO to shift the project to the pay cable network.

HBO, which is on the prowl for new hits with drama series "The Sopranos" about to wrap, has had some struggles in finding a breakout reality hit. The network is reportedly pursuing a real-life version of "Sex and the City" that follows young urban women and their love lives.

Cutler has other television projects on tap, including a reality show for NBC being developed in association with Robert De Niro's Tribeca Films and reality series "Election" for Lifetime where husband-and-wife political consultants Democrat James Carville and Republican Mary Matalin will serve as rival campaign managers in the race for student body president in a Washington high school.