Back in October, The New Yorker reported that David Simon - former Baltimore Sun reporter and creator of Homicide:Life on the Street and The Wire - was looking to New Orleans for his next project. Today, The Times-Picayune reports that Simon's newest HBO television series will be based in New Orleans and named Treme, after the historic New Orleans neighborhood. Simon told The Times-Pic that he will film the first episode later this year, and if the show's approved by HBO, will resume filming in 2009.
Simon, a frequent visitor to the city and a longtime New Orleans music fan, said this week that the stories told in "Treme" would reach beyond the music scene to explore political corruption, the public housing controversy, the crippled criminal-justice system, clashes between police and Mardi Gras Indians, and the struggle to regain the tourism industry after the storm.
"It's basically a post-Katrina history of the city. It will be rooted in events that everybody knows," Simon said. "What it's not going to be is a happy stroll through David Simon's record collection. It should not be a tourism slide show. If we do it right, it (will be) about why New Orleans matters."