Five years after the project was initially developed for Syfy, WarnerMedia’s HBO Max streaming service has ordered a pilot for a series based on Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli’s DC Comics/Vertigo series DMZ.
Roberto Patino (Westworld) is the showrunner, writer and executive producer with Ava DuVernay (A Wrinkle in Time, When They See Us) directing. The 72-issue comic book series was published from 2005-2012 under DC’s Vertigo imprint.
Here’s how the project is described:
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 DC comic, Patino’s DMZ chronicles the harrowing journey of a fierce female medic who saves lives while desperately searching for her lost son. But as she contends with the gangs, militias, demagogues and warlords that control this lawless no man’s land, she becomes the unlikely source of what everyone here has lost… hope.
“DMZ is a special project to me as it marks a key collaboration with my company Array Filmworks, the excellent team at Warner Bros TV and the dynamo Roberto Patino,” Ava DuVernay told Deadline in a statement about the announcement.
“We’ve all worked diligently on this material, and I’ve witnessed Roberto in action,” she continued when talking about her collaborator Patino. “He’s insanely talented and cares about telling stories with maximum impact and imagination. I’m eager to share this one with DC fans.”
