'The Wire' Creator David Simon Wants to do History of CIA

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'The Wire' Creator David Simon Wants to do History of CIA

Postby Gouda » Tue Sep 28, 2010 3:49 am

MacArthur Foundation reveals 2010 'genius grants'

CHICAGO – David Simon, creator of the HBO television series "The Wire," is among 23 recipients of this year's MacArthur Foundation "genius grants" — news that left him with what he described as "a vague sense of guilt."

The $500,000 grants were announced Tuesday by the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The money, paid quarterly over five years, comes with no strings, allowing winners unfettered freedom to pursue their creativity.

Simon's guilt stemmed from already being amply funded in an industry that's "a little bit recession-proof," he said. Still, the award's prestige will go far with network executives. While critically acclaimed, Simon's dissection of urban problems in "The Wire" and more recently "Treme" hasn't yet scored Emmys or high Nielsen ratings.

"It makes it easier to go into the room with the network and argue against doing the usual thing in television," Simon said. His next pitch? The history of the CIA since World War II and a housing desegregation fight in Yonkers are two subjects inspiring him now. "Not all these things have the best possible commercial outlook," he said.

MacArthur winners don't need to tell anyone how they'll spend the grant money. There are no reporting requirements.

(...)

(...)

Receiving word of the MacArthur was "like receiving a phone call from the Greek gods," [anthropologist and archaeologist Shannon Lee] Dawdy [another winner] said, because "someone you can't see is pulling the strings of your fate."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100928/ap_ ... ius_grants
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Re: 'The Wire' Creator David Simon Wants to do History of CI

Postby MinM » Tue Sep 28, 2010 11:34 am


Given his work on 'The Wire' it should be better than The Good Shepherd, or the mini-series 'The Company'...


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Re: 'The Wire' Creator David Simon Wants to do History of CI

Postby JackRiddler » Tue Sep 28, 2010 5:56 pm

The Good Shepherd - why did they bother with such half-assed stuff? They set up everything you needed to know prior to actually showing the CIA kill the president, then twisted off into a substitute fictional assassination that dpeicts them to be just as monstrous, but avoids the kook label of JFK CT for DeNiro and the other big-name producers. And if they'd gone ahead and had them off JFK, the movie would have grossed five or ten times as much.
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Re: 'The Wire' Creator David Simon Wants to do History of CI

Postby Laodicean » Tue Sep 28, 2010 9:50 pm

If anyone can do it justice, it's Simon. I'd ask him not to get too ahead of himself just yet, though. I'm enjoying Treme too much right now. Season 2 cannot come fast enough.
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Re: 'The Wire' Creator David Simon Wants to do History of CI

Postby Fresno_Layshaft » Tue Sep 28, 2010 10:20 pm

Laodicean wrote:If anyone can do it justice, it's Simon. I'd ask him not to get too ahead of himself just yet, though. I'm enjoying Treme too much right now. Season 2 cannot come fast enough.


Simon doing a CIA show would be a dream come true. I don't want to get my hopes up though- it may never see the light of day.
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Re: 'The Wire' Creator David Simon Wants to do History of CI

Postby Wombaticus Rex » Wed Sep 29, 2010 9:36 am

Well, if he wins about two dozen more MacArthur awards, fuck it, he can just finance and release the whole thing himself.
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Re: 'The Wire' Creator David Simon Wants to do History of CI

Postby sunny » Wed Sep 29, 2010 9:51 am

Laodicean wrote:If anyone can do it justice, it's Simon. I'd ask him not to get too ahead of himself just yet, though. I'm enjoying Treme too much right now. Season 2 cannot come fast enough.


Agreed. Madly in love with Treme. :lovehearts:
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Re: 'The Wire' Creator David Simon Wants to do History of CI

Postby Laodicean » Thu Feb 02, 2012 4:37 am

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Re: 'The Wire' Creator David Simon Wants to do History of CI

Postby MinM » Thu Feb 02, 2012 7:28 pm

.
viewtopic.php?p=431096#p431096

David Simon just needs to incorporate this doc/vid to have a decent film.

BTW Sum of All Fears and Fair Game are on The Movie Channel tonight.
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Re: 'The Wire' Creator David Simon Wants to do History of CI

Postby Luther Blissett » Tue Apr 29, 2014 2:55 pm

It's back in the "news" again, this time on IndieWire and Reddit.

Simon on an unrealized project. "I've got a story that I'd love to do, which I've been working on for eight or nine years, which is the history of the CIA, which would basically be America's foreign policy footprint. But it's 70 years of period piece filming, it's all over the world, there's a lot of CGI. Scene I, Act I is Berlin after the war, in total wreckage. And HBO goes, 'Listen, it was all fun when we were giving him $20 million and he was making 'The Wire' and no one was watching, but do you take us for fools?' They're looking at what the plausible revenue stream with all the downloads and BitTorrent. The window of this Golden Age of Television might have a point where it snaps shut on your fingers, because we're talking like a Hollywood studio. 'Can we get James Franco? If we get James Franco, you can make it.'
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Re: 'The Wire' Creator David Simon Wants to do History of CI

Postby Wombaticus Rex » Tue Apr 29, 2014 3:21 pm

The window of this Golden Age of Television might have a point where it snaps shut on your fingers, because we're talking like a Hollywood studio. 'Can we get James Franco? If we get James Franco, you can make it.'


Way too true.
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Re: 'The Wire' Creator David Simon Wants to do History of CI

Postby Nordic » Tue Apr 29, 2014 5:23 pm

And when that happens it becomes indistinguishable from the movie industry.
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Re: 'The Wire' Creator David Simon Wants to do History of CI

Postby operator kos » Tue Apr 29, 2014 11:16 pm

JackRiddler » Tue Sep 28, 2010 4:56 pm wrote:The Good Shepherd - why did they bother with such half-assed stuff? They set up everything you needed to know prior to actually showing the CIA kill the president, then twisted off into a substitute fictional assassination that dpeicts them to be just as monstrous, but avoids the kook label of JFK CT for DeNiro and the other big-name producers. And if they'd gone ahead and had them off JFK, the movie would have grossed five or ten times as much.


It was worse than that. They did an entire movie about the CIA and Skull and Bones with no mention of Wall Street, opium, or oil. It was such a limited hangout that you couldn't even be sure you actually saw anything hanging out.
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Re: 'The Wire' Creator David Simon Wants to do History of CI

Postby Hammer of Los » Wed Apr 30, 2014 4:59 am

...

The KAOS Operator is very wize.

But someone once told me the liberal cia are the best mafia you can deal wid.

...
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Re: 'The Wire' Creator David Simon Wants to do History of CI

Postby Laodicean » Wed Apr 30, 2014 11:39 am

Wombaticus Rex » Tue Apr 29, 2014 9:21 pm wrote:
The window of this Golden Age of Television might have a point where it snaps shut on your fingers, because we're talking like a Hollywood studio. 'Can we get James Franco? If we get James Franco, you can make it.'


Way too true.


True Detective now setting the bar for HBO. They want movie stars.

And yet JJ Abrams casts unknowns (not including you know who) for the Star Wars sequels. Go figure.
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