David Simon Turns on ATX Television

From Charm City to Bat City: The Wire creator David Simon, coming to ATX Television Festival 2018

Prestige TV is a term thrown around very lightly these days, but few creators have managed such an extraordinary impact and body of work as David Simon. Now the journalist-turned-TV leviathan will be appearing at the ATX Television Festival to discuss his career.

It's a near-unprecedented career: Adapting his own book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets into the landmark/landmine Homicide: Life on the Streets for NBC changed the police procedural forever. Yet it's his run at HBO – The Wire, The Corner, Show Me a Hero, Treme, Generation Kill, and now The Deuce – that has made him a household name. At this year's festival (running June 7-10), he will sit down with his longtime producing partner Nina K. Noble, and actor Clarke Peters (The Wire's Detective Lester Freamon, and Treme's Albert Lambreaux) to discuss the long-running collaboration between HBO and Simon's Blown Deadline Productions.

Kat Candler, showrunner for Queen Sugar

But the headline news doesn't end there, with OWN bringing Queen Sugar from creator/executive producer Ava DuVernay (fingers crossed for an appearance from its showrunner, Austin's own Kat Candler), plus a screening of the network's new show Love Is __.

Also in today's announcement:

• The Paramount Network presents Real Housewives spoof American Woman from executive producer John Wells, with cast members Alicia Silverstone, Mena Suvari, Jennifer Bartels, and co-executive producer Kyle Richards.

• Freeform will screen the second season premiere of The Bold Type, plus a panel on the evolution of millennial programming, including Grown-ish and Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger.

• Comedy Central returns with a special Drunk History interactive panel with host/creator Derek Waters.

• AT&T AUDIENCE Network will be debuting Condor, their new riff on classic conspiracy thriller Three Days of the Condor, but return to Austin for a special screening plus cast and crew Q&A.

• A special screening of independently produced comedy pilot Everyone Is Doing Great, with writer/director/actor James Lafferty and writer/actor Stephen Colletti talking about the show's riff on faded celebrities and cult status.

Additionally, Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher (stars and creators of Seeso's Take My Wife make their first ATX appearance will also join the festival for panel discussions and programming, joining previously announced events like a Nash Bridges writers' room reunion, and the cast and crew of thirtysomething back in the same room.

For more information, visit www.atxfestival.com.