The Wire creator’s next project is a series about the Spanish Civil War

STILL FROM THE WIRE COURTESY OF HBO

If you’ve watched The Wire, then you know that its creator David Simon has the ability to turn the minutiae of bureaucracy and local politics into television that’s just as gripping as gunfights and drug deals. Now, Simon is coming for your history class. Variety reports that he’s writing a new drama called A Dry Run about Americans who fought in the Spanish Civil War. While that topic might summon memories of snoozing off in world history class, Simon is sure to inject the project with a lively dose of humanity and urgent drama. He’s working with the Spanish production company Mediapro (The Young Pope), as well as the writers George Pelecanos and Dennis Lehane, who he last worked with on The Wire. The show has been tentatively planned as a six-hour miniseries, although that could change.

Simon told Variety that the “Spanish struggle against fascism and the misuse of capitalism as a bulwark to totalitarianism” represent “the preeminent political narrative of the 20th century and of our time still.” He plans to tell the story of the Abraham Lincoln and George Washington Battalions, who arrived in Spain in 1937 and fought there until 1939.

“When the Spanish Republic was threatened, capitalism chose tyranny,” Simon added. “So the better men who could not abide that choice came to Spain [to fight]. Today, that same choice confronts us again.”

The show has not yet been cast or given a release date; for now, Simon and Mediapro are raising funds.