HBO Greenlights 'Show Me a Hero'; David Simon to Write, Oscar Isaac to Star
HBO recently gave the greenlight for a new miniseries about issues of race in America, to be titled "Show Me A Hero." The six-hour miniseries will be written by David Simon, whose recent project "Treme" concluded its four-season run.
It will be based on the nonfiction book by the same title, authored by Lisa Belkin. According to a report in The Hollywood Reporter, the book looks closely at "notions of home, race and community through the lives of elected officials, bureaucrats, activists and ordinary citizens" in Yonkers, New York.
Chris Haggis, who also worked on "Crash," will direct the series. Simon will write the script with William F. Zorzi. They will also executive produce with Nina Noble, Gail Mutrux and Paul Haggis.
The new series will star Oscar Isaac, who will also star in "Star Wars: Episode VII." The report says he will play the role of Nick Wasicsko, the youngest big-city mayor "who finds himself thrust into the center of a racial controversy." Also starring is Catherine Keener, who starred in "Capote" and "Being John Malkovich," who will play Mary Dorman, a homeowner at Yonkers who "comes to a remarkable realization during the battle over where to build low-income housing."
The setting of the series is far away from the time of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. It follows the story of a young mayor who is ordered by a federal court to build a small number of low-income housing units in prominently white neighborhoods in his city. How he proceeds to do so eventually "tears the whole city apart, paralyzes the entire municipal government and, ultimately, destroys the mayor and his political future."
"Show Me a Hero" joins HBO's line up of upcoming miniseries which includes "Criminal Justice" and "Olive Kitteridge."
