The Wire’s David Simon seeks a hero for HBO
David Simon, creator of The Wire, exposes tensions at the heart of an American city in a new HBO miniseries that chimes with today’s society. Michael Pickard reports. Across five seasons, his acclaimed drama The Wire exposed the fraught relationships the police have in dealing with the drug trade, government and the media in the city of Baltimore. For his next project, David Simon continues to examine society by turning his attention to themes of home, race and community as shown through the lives of citizens, politicians and activists in Yonkers, New York State. Show Me a Hero, set generations after the civil rights struggle of the 1960s, follows the young mayor of a mid-sized American city that is facing a federal court order to build a small number of low-income housing units in his town’s white neighbourhoods. His attempt to do so tears the city apart, paralyses the local government and ultimately destroys his career. Oscar Isaac stars as the mayor, Nick Wasicsko, alongside Alfred Molina, Catherine Keener, Winona Ryder, LaTanya Richardson, Bob Balaban and Peter Riegert. The six-part miniseries, which launches on HBO this Sunday, is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Lisa Belkin and is directed by Paul Haggis (Crash). The executive producers are Simon, Haggis, Nina K Noble, Gail Mutrux and William F Zorzi. It was Mutrux who first suggested adapting Simon’s book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, which led to long-running NBC series Homicide: Life on the Streets. So … Continue reading The Wire’s David Simon seeks a hero for HBO
