I recently had the chance to speak with writer-director Mitch Glazer about his feature directorial debut, Passion Play which will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on May 31. We also talked about the new TV series he created for Starz entitled Magic City, which we first reported on back in December. Actors Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Steven Strait have already been announced to star, but Mitch Glazer told us that Olga Kurylenko, Danny Huston, and Seymour Cassel have also joined the cast. Take a look at an excerpt from my exclusive interview below, where Mitch Glazer also discusses the story line of Magic City.

Can you talk at all about the new TV series you wrote, Magic City? Do you have any updates on that?

Mitch Glazer: Yeah, yeah. I just came back from Miami to talk about Passion Play, but we start shooting July 6, 10 episodes. It's a dream. I was born and raised in Miami and my dad did the lighting for all those iconic 50s hotels. It basically takes place in one of the lobby's of those buildings. I've written six so far out of the 10. The cast is crazy. Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays the father, running this hotel. Olga Kurylenko, Danny Huston, Kelly Lynch, Steven Strait, it's really an amazing cast, also, Seymour Cassel. We're going to be there from July until November shooting this.

Have they decided on when they want to air this yet? The last I heard it was 2012, but do they have a more concrete time frame?

Mitch Glazer: There are times we have been hearing, but it all depends how we do in post-production. They are talking first or second quarter in 2012, January or March, one of those two. Starz has been incredible. There was no pilot. (Starz president and CEO) Chris Albrecht read the first three and said, 'Let's just make them all.' I'm going back home after years and years.

Is this completely set in the 1960s, or are there flashbacks?

Mitch Glazer: The first show is New Year's Eve 1958/1959 and I think the first season is pretty much 1959. Then we'll get into the 60s after that. Miami Beach was kind of like Casablanca, where you had JFK, Frank Sinatra, this Rat Pack, CIA, Cuba, this crossroads of the world, at that point. I think they had the second-largest CIA station in the world, next to Langley, during the Kennedy years. It's a real rich, cool time. The wardrobe and production design and so flashy and cool, and there is also this deeper stuff as well.

CLICK HERE for my full interview with Mitch Glazer about his new movie Passion Play.