Holder’s introduction of his desire for more “Wire” wasn’t exactly coming from left field. Pierce said he’d approached Simon in the past about a possible “Wire” movie that would serve as a prequel to the series.
“You see so many of the characters dying, all these beloved characters,” Pierce said. “You’d see them in the movie prequel, (Avon) Barksdale and Stringer (Bell), getting started and empowered.”
Pierce added that Samuel L. Jackson had expressed interest in playing the chief of the crime organization that the series’ drug lords would replace. The early days of Bunk Moreland (Pierce’s character), Jimmy McNulty and others on the law-enforcement side would be another plot thread in the prospective film.
Alas, Simon has nixed the notion so far.
“David said, ‘You’re getting a little long in the tooth” for a prequel, Pierce said.
Responding publicly to Holder’s request later in the week, Simon said restarting "The Wire" for a sixth season would come with conditions.
“The Attorney General's kind remarks are noted and appreciated,” wrote Simon in an email to The Times of London. “I've spoken to Ed Burns and we are prepared to go to work on season six of ‘The Wire’ if the Department of Justice is equally ready to reconsider and address its continuing prosecution of our misguided, destructive and dehumanising drug prohibition.”
America's War on Drugs, Simon continued, is “nothing more or less than a war on our underclass, succeeding only in transforming our democracy into the jailingest nation on the planet. This is ‘The Wire's’ argument. So if we are being urged by the nation's leading law enforcement officer to write more of the same, it seems appropriate to make some mention of the fact.
“You see so many of the characters dying, all these beloved characters,” Pierce said. “You’d see them in the movie prequel, (Avon) Barksdale and Stringer (Bell), getting started and empowered.”
Pierce added that Samuel L. Jackson had expressed interest in playing the chief of the crime organization that the series’ drug lords would replace. The early days of Bunk Moreland (Pierce’s character), Jimmy McNulty and others on the law-enforcement side would be another plot thread in the prospective film.
Alas, Simon has nixed the notion so far.
“David said, ‘You’re getting a little long in the tooth” for a prequel, Pierce said.
Responding publicly to Holder’s request later in the week, Simon said restarting "The Wire" for a sixth season would come with conditions.
“The Attorney General's kind remarks are noted and appreciated,” wrote Simon in an email to The Times of London. “I've spoken to Ed Burns and we are prepared to go to work on season six of ‘The Wire’ if the Department of Justice is equally ready to reconsider and address its continuing prosecution of our misguided, destructive and dehumanising drug prohibition.”
America's War on Drugs, Simon continued, is “nothing more or less than a war on our underclass, succeeding only in transforming our democracy into the jailingest nation on the planet. This is ‘The Wire's’ argument. So if we are being urged by the nation's leading law enforcement officer to write more of the same, it seems appropriate to make some mention of the fact.