David Simon has been in the news a lot lately. First, the stunning Amtrak tete-a-tete and selfie with longtime nemesis Gov. Martin O’Malley. Then, his “infinite hope” piece for Sports Illustrated on the Orioles that managed to mix Shakespeare, God, the Problem of Evil, quantum mechanics, and Sulawesi crested-macaques into a story about baseball. (Gotta love middle-aged men and their unabashed sentimentality for the American pastime.)
But now comes the best news from Simon: HBO has greenlighted a new project for The Wire creator—a six-part miniseries focusing on race relations and politics in Yonkers, NY. Simon will serve as co-writer with William Zorzi, a former Baltimore Sun reporter who also worked on The Wire, and Paul Haggis (Crash) will direct.
The miniseries will be based on the 1988 nonfiction book, Show Me a Hero, by Lisa Belkin, according to HollywoodReporter.com, and will star Catherine Keener (Being John Malkovich) and Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis). The story centers around a 1985 judicial decision to desegregate housing in Yonkers—New York state’s fourth-largest city and an inner suburb of New York City.
Simon’s most recent HBO series, the critically acclaimed, New Orleans-based Treme, finished its fourth and final season last year, receiving four Emmy nominations.
Of course, we’d love to see Simon work on another Baltimore-themed project, but we’re thrilled to hear he’s back working with HBO again either way.