Hollywood Capitalizes on Civil War Fears with Show Headed by Anti-Trump Star
Hollywood filmmaker Ava DuVernay will be directing the pilot for a prospective TV series based on the concept of a second American civil war.
DuVernay, perhaps most famous for directing the historical drama “Selma” and web miniseries “When They See Us,” is an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump.
Her latest project, “DMZ,” may only sow more discord between Trump supporters and Hollywood progressives.
Based on the DC comic book series of the same name, “DMZ” will be set in New York City in the context of a futuristic civil war that “leaves Manhattan a demilitarized zone (DMZ), destroyed and isolated from the rest of the world,” Variety reported.
According to Deadline Hollywood, the DMZ comic “takes place in a nation torn apart by the uneasy détente between the remains of the federal government and the secessionist Free State armies.”
Any TV series featuring factions of Americans battling each other has the potential to increase negative political polarization. But with the “DMZ” pilot being directed by an anti-Trump filmmaker, that potential only increases.
DuVernay’s “When They See Us” chronicles the story of the Central Park Five, a group of black and Hispanic teenagers convicted and later exonerated of the assault and rape of a woman in New York City’s Central Park in 1989.
Trump, at the time a prominent New York businessman, had run a full-page ad in The New York Times after the assault calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty, though he didn’t name the Central Park Five specifically.
When asked by a reporter in June if he would apologize for the ad, Trump did not back down, claiming that the teenagers “admitted their guilt,” The Washington Post reported.
DuVernay responded to the president’s remarks by saying his comments were “expected,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
“There’s nothing he says or does in relation to this case or the lives of black people or people of color that has any weight to it,” she said. “It’s not our reality, there’s no truth to it.”
DuVernay has also charged Trump with having “a lack of empathy for imprisoned and incarcerated people” in a 2016 interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Trump has supported criminal justice reform throughout his presidency, signing a sweeping bipartisan reform bill into law in December 2018.
His support for the bill drew praise from conservatives and progressives alike, with CNN host Van Jones calling passage of the legislation a “Christmas miracle.”
“[Trump] became … the biggest, loudest champion on criminal justice,” the progressive commentator said.
Production on the “DMZ” pilot will begin in 2020, according to Deadline.
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