Oscar Isaac to star in The Wire creator's new political drama

Oscar Isaac is heading to the small screen in The Wire creator David Simon's latest political drama, Show Me a Hero.

The Inside Llewyn Davis actor marks his first starring role in a TV series as Nick Wasicsko, the youngest big-city mayor in the nation during the late 1980s.

Based on the non-fiction book of the same name by author Lisa Belkin, Yonkers, New York Mayor Wasicsko finds himself in the middle of a racial scandal after he receives a federal court order to build a public housing project in a predominantly white part of town.

The project also stars Jim Belushi, Alfred Molina, Winona Ryder, Bob Balaban, Jon Bernthal, Catherine Keener and Clarke Peters, who reunites with Simon after working on The Wire and Treme.

Crash director Paul Haggis will direct the six-part miniseries, which is set to begin on the HBO network on 16 August.