HBO filmmakers transform Yonkers for series on '80s deseg case

YONKERS – A child bent down and plucked a used syringe from the littered sand in the playground at the William A. Schlobohm Houses on Wednesday, just steps from a drug deal taking place at the graffiti-stained housing project.

A mother swooped in, only to retreat in relief when another child grabbed the syringe and threw it in the trash.

It was all a bit of TV magic, part of a time-capsule transformation of the southwest Yonkers public housing complex for the first day of filming for "Show Me A Hero," an HBO series by acclaimed producer and writer David Simon that will delve into the city's desegregation battle of the 1980s.

"I'm sort of past the point where I want to do larger than life, and most of TV is about larger than life," Simon said Wednesday. "We're trying to tell a story in a medium where vampires and gangsters and dragons prevail."

"This is about real people," he said. "There are some people I sympathize with more than others, but everyone's on a human scale. I don't feel as if anyone's a complete villain or anyone's a complete hero. It's very ordinary people, particularly the people whose lives are at stake at Schlobohm or School Street or Mulford Gardens."

"Show Me A Hero" aims to be the latest in a series of hits for Simon, whose past productions included "The Wire," "Treme" and "The Corner." Based on a 1999 book by former New York Times writer Lisa Belkin, the new series will feature a cast that includes Winona Ryder, Jim Belushi, Catherine Keener, Alfred Molina and Peter Riegert as the central figures in the real-life racial drama that once divided Westchester County's largest city.

The story focuses on Nicholas Wasicsko, who was elected mayor in 1987 on a promise to oppose the federal desegregation order. Just days before his inauguration a federal appeals court upheld the order, convincing Wasicsko that the city had no alternative but to comply. That shift drew the wrath of white residents and a lengthy stalemate on the Yonkers City Council that led to crippling daily fines that nearly pushed the city into bankruptcy.

"I find myself drawn to stories that are about people as I actually have encountered them in the world," Simon said. "A lot of the entertainment world is about people who are bigger than the institutions they're in — the cop who won't take 'no,' the drug dealer who is more evil, the guy with magic powers. For me, the real was very interesting to us."

For real-life Schlobohm tenants, the production's arrival was a radical change from the daily routine. Some, like longtime resident Angela Bannister, 49, said she was thrilled that HBO was filming outside her home, yet frustrated that many tenants were not notified in advance that so much of their parking lot would be off limits.

"I just say that they should've given us a heads-up," Bannister said. "I did tell them that I have a grandson who's a very good actor if they needed somebody. He's 3 years old and he can do anything."

Series co-writer Bill Zorzi, one of the main writers on "The Wire," said that filming on location was critical.

"I think it's important to be on the actual location where these women lived," Zorzi said. "I think David and I are trying to keep the settings and keep it as real as possible and as realistic as possible."

"Show Me A Hero" has been in the works since 2002. Zorzi was a reporter at The Baltimore Sun when Simon, a former colleague at the paper, asked him to read Belkin's book. But other film projects got in the way.

Simon began casting the Yonkers project earlier this year. While the cast isn't complete yet, other actors signed for the series include Terry Kinney, best known for the HBO series "Oz"; Jon Bernthal from the AMC series "The Walking Dead"; and Oscar Isaac, star of "Inside Llewyn Davis," who will portray Wasicsko.

The HBO crew will remain at Schlobohm for several days, then move to other locations in the city in the coming weeks. Some adjustments are inevitable — scenes that take place at Mulford Gardens, a garden-style public housing complex that has since been demolished, will be filmed at Cottage Place Gardens, another housing authority site.

As for Schlobohm's litter, graffiti and even the sandbox playground, none of it is real — all temporary features that will disappear when the HBO crew packs up and begins the editing process.

"Somehow you want it to stand for more than Yonkers' story," Simon said. "If all we're doing is telling a story for people from or about Yonkers, we wouldn't have much of an audience. But at the same time, if you ground stuff in real places — and we found this in 'The Wire,' 'Treme' — if you say, 'This is really this world,' people are drawn in more. They believe there's something actual at stake. It's not just a back lot. It's something actual."

Twitter: @jfitzgibbon