On Monday, David Simon, the creator of The Wire, announced on Twitter that he will not be filming a planned project of HBO in Texas, as a protest against the new abortion laws. As a result, this might possibly be the first of many such consequences that the new controversial Texas law may bring about.
The Stance Of David Simon
David Simon wrote that the current situation exceeds politics, especially since he is an employer. He is scheduled to submit scripts to a non-fictional miniseries to HBO which would be based on real-life events in the state of Texas. However, he cannot and will not request female crew/cast to surrender their civil liberties only to film in that state. So he would rather look for some other place that looks similar to Fort Worth/Dallas.
The tweet by David Simons was immediately protested by the Office of the Dallas Creative & Film Industries. They replied that the state’s laws do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the state’s whole population. Not producing in Dallas only helps in disenfranchising the residents further. They said that creatives/crew/talent are needed to reside there and vote. They should not be forced to move out because they cannot find a job.
On Tuesday, David Simons replied back that his earlier tweet was misunderstood. He clarified that his response does have any political or utilitarian basis. He said that he was responsible for making sure his employees’ civil liberties are maintained. However, if the state’s laws deny this, then it is better to film somewhere else.
The project of Simon is yet to be announced. HBO has not commented on this matter. They have only stated that Simons is presently producing a miniseries regarding the corruption of Baltimore Police.
