David Simon Teams With Larissa MacFarquhar, Lily Thorne and Kiese Laymon to Develop HBO Series on Child Protective Services (EXCLUSIVE)

David Simon is developing a new series at HBO, Variety has learned exclusively.

Simon is attached to write and executive produce the drama project, currently titled “The System.” Lily Thorne and Larissa MacFarquhar will also write and co-executive produce, with Kiese Laymon also attached to write.

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The project is based on a series of New Yorker articles written by MacFarquhar. The official description states that the show “will examine the foster care and child protective service systems from the viewpoint of family court judges and lawyers, as well as social workers, caretakers, mothers, and the children themselves, and will probe the risks and benefits of removing children from families of origin.”

Should the project move forward, it would be Simon’s ninth HBO series. He is perhaps best known for his work on the critically-acclaimed series “The Wire,” which aired for five seasons at the premium cabler. He most recently co-created the limited series “We Own This City,” which told the true story of the Baltimore Police Department’s ill-fated Gun Trace Task Force. His other shows with the network are “The Plot Against America,” “The Deuce,” “Treme,” “Show Me a Hero,” “Generation Kill,” and “The Corner.”

MacFarquhar has been writing for The New Yorker since 1998. In that time, she has written about a wide range of topics, including child protective services, adoption, and hospice care. She has also written numerous profiles for the magazine, including those of Barack Obama, Noam Chomsky, Hilary Mantel, and more. in 2016, Penguin Books published her non-fiction book “Strangers Drowning : Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Urge to Help.” “The System” will mark her television writing debut.

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