HBO Lines Up Spring Debuts

NEW YORK: Al Pacino stars in the Barry Levinson/HBO Films presentation You Don’t Know Jack, debuting this spring on HBO, which is also set to air a new drama from The Wire‘s David Simon and Eric Overmyer and a ten-part mini-series produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman.

In You Don’t Know Jack, Pacino plays former pathologist Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who launches a crusade to provide what he considers to be a humane and dignified option for the terminally ill assisted suicide. The project is an HBO Films presentation of a Levinson/Fontana Production in association with Bee Holder Productions and Cine Mosaic Productions. You Don’t Know Jack was written by Adam Mazer, with executive producers Barry Levinson, Tom Fontana, Lydia Dean Pilcher, Steve Lee Jones and Glenn Rigberg.

The Wire‘s Simon and Overmyer have re-teamed for the new one-hour drama Treme, which follows musicians, chefs, Mardi Gras Indians and ordinary New Orleanians as they try to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricane. The ensemble cast includes Wendell Pierce (The Wire), Khandi Alexander (CSI: Miami), Clarke Peters (Damages), Rob Brown (Stop-Loss) and Steve Zahn (A Perfect Getaway). The series will also feature cameos by notable real-life New Orleanians, as well as the talents of many of its musicians and other artists associated with the city’s music. Treme will launch its ten-episode first season in April.

The Pacific, an HBO Miniseries presentation of a Playtone and DreamWorks production, tells the story of U.S. Marines in the Pacific Theaters of World War II. The mini-series follows these men and their fellow Marines from their first battle with the Japanese on Guadalcanal, through the rain forests of Cape Gloucester and the strongholds of Peleliu, across the  sands of Iwo Jima and through Okinawa, and finally to their return home. Hanks, Spielberg and Goetzman—who are also the producing team behind the Emmy Award-winnign HBO mini-series Band of Brothers—are the executive producers. The Pacific was directed by Carl Franklin, David Nutter, Jeremy Podeswa, Tony To, Tim Van Patten and Graham Yost, and was written by Laurence Andries, Michelle Ashford, Bruce C. McKenna, George Pelecanos, Robert Schenkkan and Yost. Part one will debut on March 14 at 9 p.m., followed by other parts debuting on consecutive Sundays at the same time through May 16.