In a story from The Hollywood Reporter, New York filmmakers Spike Lee and Robert De Niro have partnered up with Showtime to create the drama series Alphaville. It will be set in Manhattan's Alphabet City.

The script is going to be penned by John Ridley. Lee will be directing the potential pilot.

Ridley, Lee, De Niro and his producing partner Jane Rosenthal are all producing.

The show will be an ensemble drama that examines "Alphabet City's gritty and tumultuous past before it became the gentrified East Village." The show will be set in the 1980s, and it focus on the mix of struggling artists as well as musicians that live alongside Puerto Rican and black families.

Other subcultures that will looked at are graffiti artists, break-dancers, rappers and DJs.