We had learned back in February 2020 that the DMZ series was bulking up for its pilot for a potential HBO Max series and then in November 2020 it got its limited-series order placed for it with filming scheduled for 2021. The series is set to star Rosario Dawson and Benjamin Bratt in the lead roles alongside Hoon Lee, Freddy Miyares, and Jordan Preston Carter.
Now, some updates have come on the cast side as it’s been revealed that the previously cast actors will be joined by Rutina Wesley (Queen Sugar), Mamie Gummer (True Detective), Nora Dunn (The Big Leap), Henry G. Sanders (Queen Sugar), Venus Ariel (NCIS: New Orleans), Jade Wu (Marvel’s Luke Cage), Rey Gallegos (Animal Kingdom), Agam Darshi (Funny Boy), and Juani Feliz (Harlem).
Roberto Patino will serve as the showrunner for the series and will be writing all the episodes. Ava DuVernay directed the pilot and both serve as executive producers on it. They’re now joined by Ernest Dickerson, who will direct the remaining three episodes, and Carly Wray who joined the writing team.
“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 Patino in November 2020. “DMZ offers up an explosive playground which, more than anything else, exalts the resilience of community and the human spirit. I can’t wait to welcome the die-hard fans of the comic books and new viewers alike to this intoxicating, haunting and inspiring world.”
“DMZ’s unflinching story of a country torn apart resonates eerily and profoundly amid our current state of the union,” added Sarah Aubrey, head of original content, HBO Max, also said in November 2020. “With the powerhouse visionary team of Ava and Roberto at the helm, bringing this critically acclaimed DC gem to life promises to entertain and inspire hope.”
The 72 issue series DMZ began in 2005 and ended in 2012, which was created by Brian Wood with Riccardo Burchiellie under the Vertigo Comics imprint of DC Comics.
Plot concept: DMZ is set in the near future, when America is embroiled in a bitter civil war, leaving Manhattan a demilitarized zone (DMZ), destroyed and isolated from the rest of the world. It chronicles the harrowing journey of fearless and fierce medic Alma Ortega (Rosario Dawson) 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 (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. The drama will examine the stark political and cultural divide in American society, where 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 there has lost…hope.
[Source: Deadline]
