It’s an empire state of mind.
Netflix drama “Black Rabbit,” starring Jude Law and Jason Bateman, is set in the world of New York City dining, and unlike shows that use cheaper cities and sets as stand-ins, it was filmed on location.
Creators Zach Baylin and Kate Susman – who are also a married couple – told The Post, “We lived in New York for about 17 years.”
Baylin, who was nominated for a “best original screenplay” Oscar for “King Richard,” explained that they lived “catty-corner” to “a very buzzy restaurant and nightclub. We were completely intoxicated by it… and the New York downtown landscape at the time.”
Susman, however, added that information came out that there was “bad behavior” happening behind the scenes, and the place shut down.
They were referring to former hotspot The Spotted Pig, which was open from 2004 until it shuttered in 2020 amid sexual misconduct allegations.
Baylin explained, “We were really intrigued by this idea of – when you go into a restaurant or a nightclub in New York at night, everything looks sexy and perfect and alluring. When you’re in those places in the day, the lights are on and the cockroaches are out, and the surfaces are all sticky.”
He called it a “magic trick that gets put on every night.”
The “Creed III” screenwriter added that they were interested in the idea that “a place can produce an image that looks so sexy and appealing and something you want to be part of….but then you realize you have no idea what the people who are making it run are actually doing behind the scenes.”
Premiering Sept. 18, “Black Rabbit” follows Jake (Law), the owner of a popular New York City nightlife hotspot, whose life gets thrown into chaos when his brother Vince (Bateman) returns, bringing seedy criminal underworld characters into his life and threatening their business.
Susman said that the restaurant in the show is “not one based on any one place, but just bits and pieces of the places that we were inhabiting in our 20s and 30s.”
In addition to The Spotted Pig, they also cited Minetta Tavern as an influence and The Dressler in Williamsburg, which closed in 2013.
Baylin said that those establishments “just really captured this sense of a meeting point for the New York artistic cool kid downtown set, at the time.”
Susman expressed that she and Baylin, “didn’t feel like the New York that we lived in has ever been really accurately represented on TV. So it was just fun to be out in the world and in the East Village and Coney Island. The 10th Street Russian and Turkish baths in the East Village feature very prominently in the show.”
Baylin recalled that they used to frequent the baths “hungover on the weekend,” so that was one of the “specific neighborhood things” that they wanted to include.
“The Order” screenwriter also cited the Brooklyn Bridge as a filming location, as well as the South Street Seaport, the Chinatown bus terminals in the Lower East Side, and the Pool Room at the former Four Seasons.
“We tried to really cover the gamut,” he added.
They even had the ultimate NYC experience when a celebrity bystander crashed the shoot.
“We were camped out in front of David Letterman’s apartment in Tribeca, and he just was coming home and just happened to stumble upon set,” Susman recalled.
She said that Letterman “ended up sitting behind the monitors and watching for a while, which was super cool. I think he had been locked out of his apartment, which is why he was on the street.”
