HBO Orders David Simon Adaptation of Philip Roth’s Fascism Drama The Plot Against America

HBO has ordered a six-episode miniseries from David Simon based on Philip Roth’s fascism drama The Plot Against America, per THR.

Told through the eyes of a working-class Jewish family in New Jersey, The Plot Against America is set in an alternate American history in which Franklin D. Roosevelt loses the 1940 U.S. presidential election to Charles Lindbergh, an aviator hero and xenophobic populist, who as president turns the nation toward fascism.

The book, first published in 2004, was inspired by Lindberg’s isolationist ideas as a spokesman for the America First Committee, as well as Roth’s own experiences growing up in Newark, N.J.

The news follows a nearly year-long dealmaking process for the project, the order for which arrives just days after a tense midterm election cycle, one in which results are still being contested. The elections saw Democrats regain control of the House in a still-fraught and divisive political climate under President Trump.

Simon will co-write the script with longtime collaborator Ed Burns (The Wire, Generation Kill),and the duo will executive produce alongside Joe Roth (no relation to Philip), Simon’s Blown Deadline Productions partner Nina Noble, Megan Ellison, Annapurna TV’s Sue Naegle and Susan Goldberg, and Jeff Kirschenbaum, while Dennis Stratton will serve as a co-EP.

The forthcoming series is now Simon’s sixth for HBO; the outspoken journalist-turned-showrunner has created The Wire, Treme, The Corner, Show Me a Hero and The Deuce, the last of which is heading into its third and final season at the pay-cabler next year.

The Plot Against America is Simon’s next project after The Deuce, although we don’t yet know when it’s expected to arrive.