After numerous failed attempts, J.J. Abrams and HBO Max are finally getting a series going with THR reporting that the streamer has picked up the 1972-set drama “Duster” which hails from Abrams and LaToya Morgan (“Into the Badlands”).
Taking place in the U.S. Southwest, the eight-episode season follows the first Black female FBI agent (Rachel Hilson) as she recruits a gutsy getaway driver (Josh Holloway) in a bold effort to take down a growing crime syndicate.
Abrams and Morgan wrote the first two installments with Steph Green directing. Keith David, Sydney Elisabeth, Greg Grunberg, Camille Guaty, Asivak Koostachin, Adriana Aluna Martinez and Benjamin Charles Watson co-star.
Morgan in a statement says: “Duster is an amalgam of all my favorite things — high-octane storytelling with deep characters and so much heart. It’s a dream project and I’m supremely grateful to all the folks at Warner Bros. and HBO Max for believing in this show. And I couldn’t have asked for a better partner in crime than J.J. to build this incredible world.”
The green light follows in the wake of three failed projects that Bad Robot and HBO Max were developing over the past few years. The long-in-development “Demimonde” came close to moving forward, but concerns over its projected $200 million-plus budget scuttled it.
Abrams’ “The Shining” spin-off “Overlook,” and the planned “Justice League Dark” project which could’ve been spun-off into multiple DC series about the supernatural corners of that universe, have also been fully scrapped according to the trade. “Overlook” is being shopped to other possible buyers.
The end of “Justice League Dark” and its planned spin-offs come as little surprise in the wake of DC Studios major revision of the studio’s plans which will include several DC series set to air on HBO Max. DC Studios co-chief James Gunn confirmed on Twitter today that the second season of “Peacemaker” remains in the works but will come after both his writing commitments to “Superman: Legacy” and the “Waller” TV series.
