10 Upcoming New HBO Series To Be Excited About

4. Show Me A Hero

The one on this list closest to airing - it starts August 16 - and yet another one with a huge amount of talent involved. It's based on the 1999 book by New York Times writer Lisa Belkin, and will be a six-part miniseries airing in three two-hour blocks. That runtime is just one of the indications that this will have real cinematic quality, as it stars Oscar Isaac (who'll be seen later this year in a little sci-fi movie, The Force something or other), and directed by Paul Haggis (who received Oscars for Million Dollar Baby and Crash).

Set in the late-80s and early-90s, it'll chronicle a white, middle-class New York neighbourhood's resistance to a federally-mandated public housing development, and their efforts to desegregate these areas. Isaac will play Nick Wasicsko, a former police officer now running for Mayor, with Carla Quevedo as his wife. Jim Belushi will be the reigning Mayor and Isaac's opponent, and the cast also includes Winona Ryder as the City Council president, and Jon Bernthal as a civil rights attorney. The story is certainly rich for drama, with a cast to match, while The Wire creator David Simon and writer William F. Zorsi have written all the episodes.