Tag: We Own This City

  • Jon Bernthal, Jamie Hector & Josh Charles to lead HBO series ‘We Own This City’

    By PTI
    LOS ANGELES: Actors Jon Bernthal, Jamie Hector, Josh Charles are set to feature in HBO’s new limited series “We Own This City”. The show hails from “The Wire” team of David Simon and George Pelecanos, who will write and executive produce, reported Deadline.

    Reinaldo Marcus Green of “Monsters and Men” will direct and executive produce the series, based on Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton’s book “We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption”.

    The six-episode show is about the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force, and the corruption and moral collapse that befell an American city in which the policies of drug prohibition and mass arrest were championed at the expense of actual police work.

    Bernthal will star as Sergeant Wayne Jenkins of the Baltimore Police Department, perhaps the central figure in the sprawling federal corruption case that centred on the agency’s Gun Trace Task Force. The plainclothes unit went completely rogue and began hunting and robbing citizens and drug dealers alike as decades of a relentless drug war and mass incarceration in Baltimore spun wildly out of control.

    Hector will essay the role of Sean M Suiter, a Baltimore City Homicide detective who was caught up in the GTTF case and called to testify before a federal grand jury. Charles will play Daniel Hersl, a cocky, swaggering cop known amongst Baltimore residents for his casual brutality who was the subject of multiple citizen complaints.

    Nina K. Noble, Kary Antholis and Ed Burns are also executive producers on the show which will start production in July.

  • David Simon, George Pelecanos heading back to HBO for limited series

    By PTI
    LOS ANGELES: Writers David Simon and George Pelecanos, known for acclaimed shows like “The Wire” and “Treme”, are set to reunite with HBO for their latest project “We Own This City”. The show, billed as a limited series, from the frequent collaborators will delve into the story behind the Baltimore Police Department’s infamous Gun Trace Task Force.

    It is based on journalist Justin Fenton’s book “We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption”, published by Random House. According to Deadline, Simon and Pelecanos are writing and executive producing “We Own This City”.

    HBO’s former President of Miniseries Kary Antholis also executive produces through his Crime Story Media. The show will revolve around the Gun Trace Task Force, which was designed to get firearms and violent criminals off the streets of Baltimore amid a rising murder rate in the city.

    The unit ended up functioning as a criminal outfit of its own, with officers stealing money from people they claimed were suspects, conducting illegal searches, planting evidence and skimming cash from drug busts.

    A federal Drug Enforcement Administration investigation into the task force yielded indictments against eight members of the unit. Six pleaded guilty, and the two who didn’t were sentenced to 18 years in prison. “We Own This City” will be Simon and Pelecanos’ next show at the premium cable network after “The Deuce”, whose third and final season aired in 2019.