A new report reveals that award winning producer, Ava Duvernay is producing a pilot with CBS for a new hour-long drama series. According to Deadline the series titled Red Line details the fallout from a police involved shooting in Chicago where a White police officer shoots and kills an African-American doctor. The Caitlin Parrish, Erica Weiss written pilot episode was ordered by CBS to potentially air on the network in an upcoming premiere season. Details about how much of this series has been shot by Duvernay and her team of writers for this project is unknown at the time.
The series reportedly follows three different families who were affected by the accidental shooting and during the show their stories will converge. This follows a trend of shows dealing with issues in the African-American community along with Lena Waithe‘s Showtime series The Chi, which was recently renewed for a second season.
Duvernay has been working on a new film, Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time, and is producing the newest season to Queen Sugar on the Oprah Winfrey Network. The writer/producer is mostly known for her Netflix documentary, 13 a documentary detailing the 13th amendment and mass incarceration in the United States. Duvernay won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming for 13 and scored an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature.
Duvernay’s niche has become telling the stories of people who have been marginalized and oppressed, mainly women and African-Americans, and has been praised by public figures like Oprah Winfrey, Issa Rae, and Gayle King who works for CBS This Morning, the same network that is courting Duvernay’s series.
CBS is ordering the pilot, however this does not guarantee that Duvernay’s drama series will be picked up for a full season with the network – but with her previous successes and prominent name, it is hard to doubt her ability to create something that will become popular.
