David Simon's HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero is flushing out its cast.
James Belushi, Terry Kinney and Michael Stahl-David have joined the ranks of the six-hour entry, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Based on the nonfiction book by Lisa Belkin, Show Me a Hero is set in an America generations removed from the greatest civil rights struggles of the 1960s. It centers on Nick Wasicsko, the young mayor (Star Wars: Episode VII's Oscar Isaac) of a midsize American city who is faced with a federal court order that says he must build a small number of low-income housing units in the white neighborhoods of his town. His attempt to do so tears the whole city apart, paralyzes the entire municipal government and, ultimately, destroys the mayor and his political future. Catherine Keener stars as Mary Dorman, an East Yonkers homeowner who comes to a remarkable realization during the battle over where to build low-income housing.
Belushi (According to Jim, The Defenders) will portray Angelo R. Martinelli, an affable old political hand and six-term Yonkers mayor who argued to comply with the judge's order and lost his seat as a result. Kinney (Oz, The Unusuals) is set as Peter Smith, the Yonkers Housing Authority’s director who quietly and delicately waded through the political and bureaucratic morass to ensure that the public housing was built. Stahl-David (Cloverfield, My Generation) is James Surdoval, the political consultant who helped guide Wasicsko’s political career and became the man to see in Yonkers as behind-the-scenes deal-maker. The casting reunites Kinney and Stahl-David, who currently co-star in the latter's comedic autobiographical web series Michael Stahl-David: Behind the Star.
Simon and William F. Zorzi will pen the script and executive produce alongside Nina Noble, Gail Mutrux and Paul Haggis, who will direct via The Wire creator's A Blown Deadline banner. HBO greenlit the mini on July 30.
Belushi is repped by ICM Partners and Brillstein Entertainment; Kinney is with ICM and Brookside Artists Management; and Stahl-David is with ICM and Management 360.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
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