David Simon will have another familiar face on the set of Treme.
Oscar Nominee Mellisa Leo has signed on to play an unnamed civil rights lawyer in the post-Katrina New Orleans drama. Leo previously played Det. Sgt. Kay Howard in Simon’s Homicide: Life on the Streets. She recently was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for Frozen River.
The cast currently includes a number of Simon Alumi including The Wire’s Clarke Peters and Wendell Pierce and Khandi Alexander (News Radio, CSI: Miami) worked with Simon on The Corner.
We also now know that Rob Brown (Finding Forrester, Stop-Loss) has signed on as a character named Delmond Lambreaux and Ntare Mwine (Heroes) as Jacques Vaz.
Also announced are Twin Cities own Steve Zahn (Out of Sight, That Thing you do!) and Kim Dickins (Deadwood).
Agnieszka Holland with be directing. Holland has previously directed episodes of The Wire and Cold Case, as well as a number of films. She also was a “scenario consultant” on Krzysztof Kieslowski’s fantastic Colors Trilogy (Blue, Red, White).
The more I hear about this, the more excited I get. Filming on Treme will start later this month.
Update: Filming apparently started this morning. I am smiling as I type this. Seriously, I am as giddy as as schoolgirl right now…please, no cracks.