HBO Max Greenlights Limited Series Order to Ava DuVernay’s DMZ Adaptation

HBO Max has ordered the Max Original four-part limited event DMZ series, from Emmy nominee Roberto Patino, Emmy winner/Academy Award nominee Ava DuVernay, and Warner Bros. Television.

Rosario Dawson (Briarpatch, Rent, Sin City) and Benjamin Bratt (Law & Order, Traffic) lead the cast of the futuristic drama which is set amid a second American civil war and is based on the comic series published by DC.

Patino, who will write all episodes and showrun the series, wrote the pilot episode, which was directed by DuVernay. Patino and DuVernay are the executive producers. Production on the limited series is scheduled to begin in 2021.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled to bring this epic to the screen with my boundary-pushing partners at WBTV and HBO Max, a sublime cast led by Rosario and Benjamin, and my partner and friend, the inimitable and ever-inspiring Ava DuVernay,” said Roberto Patino.

In the near future, America is embroiled in a bitter civil war, leaving Manhattan a demilitarized zone (DMZ), destroyed and isolated from the rest of the world. Leaping off the pages of the popular comic, the DMZ series chronicles the harrowing journey of fearless and fierce medic Alma Ortega (series star Rosario Dawson), who sets out on a harrowing journey to find the son she lost in the evacuation of New York City at the onset of the conflict.

Throwing gasoline on the flames of that conflict is Parco Delgado (series star Benjamin Bratt), the popular — and deadly — leader of one of the most powerful gangs in the DMZ. He wants to rule this new world — and will stop at nothing to secure that outcome. In this adrenalized and expansive drama which examines a stark political and cultural divide in American society, Alma must contend with the gangs, militias, demagogues and warlords that control this lawless no man’s land. In doing so, she becomes the unlikely source of what everyone here has lost…hope.

In addition to Dawson and Bratt, the DMZ series stars include Hoon Lee (Banshee, Warrior), Freddy Miyares (When They See Us, The L Word: Generation Q) and Jordan Preston Carter (The Haves and the Have Nots).

The DMZ series is produced by DuVernay’s ARRAY Filmworks in association with Warner Bros. Television. Patino and DuVernay are both under overall deals with Warner Bros. Television Group (WBTVG).