Baltimore returns to the small screen in We iOwn/i This City, an upcoming limited series that will debut on April 25 in HBO and HBO Max. Within weeks of the release of the first episode, the television network presented the first trailer of what will be this production created by David Simon (The Wire) and George Pelecanos, written based on the book by Justin Fenton, a reporter from Baltimore Sun. It should be remembered and clarified that they also return to the city that was the protagonist of their most acclaimed work since The Wire happens entirely there. -
The original story follows the daily life of the weapons tracing task force of the Baltimore Police Department, Maryland (United States). Through a close account from the perspective of the various police officers, the mini-series “examines the corruption and moral collapse that occurred in an American city where drug prohibition policies and mass arrests were defended at the expense of real police work.”
Simon is widely known for his work on television, after retiring from his work as a journalist. Based on his experiences, he was able to design one of the best TV productions in recent decades: The Wire, which aired between 2002 and 2008. One of his greatest colleagues is Pelecanos, who has served as a screenwriter in the hit crime drama and also in other titles such as Tremeb and The Deuce. The two again form a duo to make the six episodes that make up the first season of We Own This City come true, under the direction of Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard: A Winning Family). Nina K. Noble, Ed Burns and Kary Antholis are executive producers.
As is the custom of both creators, the fiction takes place in Baltimore during 2015 and, although it is based on Justin Fenton's book, it in turn is written taking real experiences from the city. The official description adds a framework and even figures of the events reported: “Riots arise throughout the city when citizens demand justice for Freddie Grady, a 25-year-old black man who dies under suspicious circumstances while in police custody. Drugs and violence are on the rise, and the city reaches its highest number of murders in more than two decades: 342 homicides in a single year within a population of just 600,000 people.”
The new police bet on fiction was made possible by a cast consisting of Jon Bernthal (The Punisher and The Walking Dead), Wunmi Mosaku, Jamie Hector, McKinley Belcher III, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Josh Charles, Dagmara Domińczyk, Rob Brown, Don Harvey, David Corenswet, Larry Mitchell, Ian Duff, Delaney Williams and Lucas Van Engen.
In March last year, HBO gave the green light to the six-episode project based on “We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption” by investigative journalist Justin Fenton. The actors who would be part of the cast were confirmed in May of that same year and production began until July, and I experience a brief pause of one week during filming due to a situation related to a COVID-19 infection.
We Own This City will arrive on April 25 through the television channel and the HBO Max platform.
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