Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli's 2005 American comic book series DMZ (demilitarized zone) was first announced as a live-action project back in February 2014, but it wasn't until October 2019 that director Ava DuVernay boarded the project and progress started.
Once DuVernay came aboard, casting quickly followed with Rosario Dawson (The Mandalorian, Daredevil, Sin City) set to play the lead alongside Benjamin Bratt.
The series is described as, "the harrowing journey of fearless and fierce medic Alma Ortega (Dawson), who sets out to find the son she lost in the evacuation of New York City after the outbreak of a second civil war which has left Manhattan a demilitarized zone (DMZ). Throwing gasoline on the flames of that conflict is Parco Delgado (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."
“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,” DuVernay said in a statement last year. “We’ve all worked diligently on this material, and I’ve witnessed Roberto in action. He’s insanely talented and cares about telling stories with maximum impact and imagination. I’m eager to share this one with DC fans.”
Launching in 2005, DMZ was published by DC Comics under their Vertigo imprint until 2012 having released a total of 12 trade paperback volumes.