"Sopranos" creator Chase reveals "Dreams" for HBO

Creator and producer of the show ''The Sopranos'' David Chase poses with two Emmy statuettes at the Governor's Ball following the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California September 16, 2007.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - After turning New Jersey mobsters into pop-culture icons with "The Sopranos," David Chase is going cross-country to Los Angeles with a miniseries for HBO about the history of the Hollywood film industry.

The miniseries, "A Ribbon of Dreams" -- whose title comes from Orson Welles' observation that "a film is a ribbon of dreams" -- will begin in 1913 and follow two men, one a college-educated mechanical engineer, the other a cowboy with a violent past, who form an unlikely producing partnership.

The duo will start off as employees of D.W. Griffith and then cross career paths with such Hollywood greats as John Ford, John Wayne, Raoul Walsh, Bette Davis and Billy Wilder. Through the eyes of the two main characters -- as well as their offspring -- "Dreams" will chronicle the growth of the film industry from the age of rough-hewn silent Westerns, to the golden era of talkies and the studio system, to the auteur movement, to television, and finally to the present day.

The miniseries reunites Chase with "Sopranos" executive producer Brad Grey, now chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures. Grey, along with Chase, will executive produce the project, which will be a co-production between HBO, Paramount Pictures and Chase Films.

In addition to writing and executive producing, Chase will direct the first episodes of the mini.

"It gives me pleasure to think of working, together with Brad, with HBO again," Chase said. "These are all people who, obviously, occupy a special place in my heart."

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)