Afer landing Rosario Dawson (Briarpatch) and Benjamin Bratt (Doctor Strange) for key roles in the pilot, Ava DuVernay is reuniting with When They See Us star Freddy Miyares for her upcoming HBO adaptation of the Vertigo comic book series DMZ, according to Deadline.
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DMZ takes place in a near-future where an American civil war has left Manhattan a demilitarized zone (hence the title) that is isolated from the rest of the world. The story follows a female medic who is desperately searching for her lost son in the DMZ while contending with gangs, militias, and warlords all the while saving lives along the way.
Bratt will star as Parco Delgado, the popular — and deadly — leader of one of the most powerful gangs in the DMZ. He wants to rule the DMZ and will stop at nothing to secure the outcome. Parco is known as a wildly magnetic, affable, and equally influential man.
Dawson will play Alma, a fierce medic who saves lives while desperately searching for her lost son. As she contends with the gangs, militias, demagogues, and warlords who now control the lawless island, she becomes the unlikely source of what everyone there has lost: hope.
Miyares is set to star as Skel, a triggerman of one of the DMZ’s most powerful gangs led by Bratt’s Delgado, but is also a talented graffiti artist and has a passion for art, which remains as his only tie to his humanity in a world in which survival and power go hand-in-hand.
Filming on the pilot is scheduled to begin in early 2020. DuVernay will follow-up the pilot project with The New Gods, the DC Comics feature adaptation being helmed by DuVernay for Warner Bros.
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Robert Patino (Westworld, Sons of Anarchy, Fear Street) will serve as showrunner and executive producer, with DuVernay set to direct and executive produce with Patino. The project comes from DuVernay’s Array Filmworks and Warner Bros. TV.
