The Wire Creators Bring Iraq War Mini-Series to HBO
There has been a lot of interest in bringing stories of the Iraq war to the screen as of late (both the big screen and small screen). The recently greenlit HBO mini-series Generation Kill might not seem to stand out in that regard, however, what it does have is the involvement of David Simon, creator of the gritty HBO show The Wire, and his writing partner Ed Burns. Generation Kill will be based on the book by Evan Wright, who was stationed with troops in the war’s early stages in 2003, and wrote an award-winning three-part series for Rolling Stone. Word on the street is that HBO wants to make this series on par with Band of Brothers, at least in terms of the “immediacy and the spectacle, if not the production budget”. The book (and the series) will focus on the struggle between military personnel and the bureaucracy, in addition to the background of the soldiers, many of whom come from broken homes and had little expectations from life. Generation Kill will be a seven-hour series, and starts shooting this summer in Africa.
Comments (5)
Now, I liked Band of Brothers (who didn’t?) but I thought it was by far strongest in the first three episodes and the last three episodes. The stuff in between, I thought they got carried away with the ’spectacle’ and all the war stuff. There was this one episode where they were in the forest and basicly were bombarded for 70 minutes or so, which got pretty boring to say the least.
So if they’re aiming to make it like band of brothers in terms of the spectacle I don’t care about this, but if they’re aiming for that sort of quality in terms of actors and actually taking their time with it (the band of brothers episodes were quite long if I recall correctly, and I liked that) then I am definitely excited. Even if I am sick of hearing the true story of this war.
Posted by Henrik on March 1st, 2007Sean, you don’t know what you’re talking about:
“…the background of the soldiers, many of whom come from broken homes and had little expectations from life.”
With the exception of Espera, who is not a Recon Marine, every 0321 Marine in that unit, despite their often humorous self-degradation, are absolute professionals who were successful before, during, and after this little ’story’. The majority are well-educated and/or competitive atheletes from middle to upper-middle class homes. A number of enlisted men have bachelor’s degrees or higher.
And, Marines are not soldiers. Other than all that, great job buddy.
Posted by Inthe Know on June 13th, 2008Anything the Wire crew do I am 100% in for, but I am wondering if the Wire was a one-off because the creators were from Baltimore and the story was so much about that city… I guess storytelling is storytelling.
Posted by rot on June 13th, 2008One might argue certain minutia of the show, but there’s no denying the show is brilliant …gut wrenching …heart breaking. We’ve linked to this image for our article at http://www.spunkybean.com and our review of the mini-series will be up at Noon, Tuesday (July 22). Thanks for the image and I’m thrilled people are catching onto this show so quickly.
Posted by Don on July 22nd, 2008Nothing against the soldiers who are doing their job, but if this is painted as some sort of honour, then I’ll be a bit miffed.
Posted by Baychuk on July 22nd, 2008Leave a Reply