HBO Developing Stonewall-Era Drama

Following the success of The Normal Heart, HBO has announced plans to develop another drama with LGBT themes and characters.

The premium cable network has picked up the script for Open City, a period drama that explores the political and cultural tensions of late 1960s New York, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Written by David Kajganich (True Story) and set to be directed and produced by gay filmmaker Adam Shankman (Hairspray, A Walk to Remember), Open City will also explore the strange bedfellows of the Mafia and the gay community during this time, as the two groups work together to open a West Village bar.

Ronnie Lorenzo, an original proprietor of the Stonewall Inn, a formerly Mafia-run gay bar that many consider the birthplace of the gay liberation movement, has signed on as a consulting producer.

The news about Open City follows the critical success of The Normal Heart, directed by Ryan Murphy and written by Larry Kramer, who penned the original 1985 play of the same name. The TV film, which is a lightly fictionalized account of the founding of the Gay Men's Health Crisis, an organization started in response to the AIDS crisis in 1980s New York City, drew a total of 1.4 million viewers its premiere showing last Sunday.