David Simon hopes to bring his gritty and realistic flavor to HBO's planned Martin Luther King miniseries, as the writer-director confirmed that he'll be involved deeply with the project.

The award-winning creator of Treme and The Wire will spearhead the HBO six-hour miniseries adaptation of Taylor Branch's America: In The King Years. It's the second of two planned Martin Luther King, Jr. projects that Oprah Winfrey is attached to produced —the other is Ava DuVernay's Selma, which has David Oyelowo (Lee Daniels' The Butler) attached to star in, with Paramount distributing.

HBO's miniseries was originally announced back in 2010, but now it seems as if it is ready to be on the go. Simon has agreed, according to Deadline, to write at least the first part of the planned six-hour project. The miniseries will cover the Freedom Rides, the Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C., as well as MLK's relationships with John F. and Robert Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

There's no other casting news or expected premiere dates, but Simon will reportedly work on the script with Treme co-creator Eric Overmyer.

"Eric Overmyer and I have taken on a project that was already in HBO's development stable," Simon wrote. "We have agreed to go into a room with Taylor Branch and others and see what can be done for a six-hour miniseries. But as per Blown Deadline's development projects, this is behind another miniseries project for HBO that is closer to production and that we hope to be announcing shortly."

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