HBO Max orders Bad Robot trio

WarnerMedia-owned US streaming service HBO Max has ordered three original shows from JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot prodco, including a major series based on DC characters from the Justice League Dark universe.

JJ Abrams
(photo: Gage Skidmore via CC)

Duster, from Abrams, and Overlook, inspired by Stephen King’s The Shining, are the first two orders from Bad Robot Productions through Warner Bros Television for the soon-to-launch streamer.

Iconic characters from DC’s Justice League Dark will be at the centre of the third show, further details of which will be revealed soon.

The production commitments for the three one-hour dramas mark the first new Bad Robot-produced TV projects for HBO Max under the exclusive content collaboration partnership formed by Abrams and Katie McGraph’s prodco with WarnerMedia at the end of last year.

Duster is being co-written by Abrams and LaToya Morgan. Set in the US Southwest in the 1970s, the plot focuses on a gutsy getaway driver for a growing crime syndicate.

Currently a writer on AMC’s The Walking Dead, Morgan was previously a co-executive producer and writer of the same network’s Into the Badlands and TURN: Washington’s Spies, and has also written for NBC’s Parenthood and Showtime’s Shameless.

Overlook is a horror-thriller series inspired by and featuring iconic characters from Stephen King masterpiece The Shining, exploring the untold stories of the titular hotel.

The project reunites Bad Robot, King and Warner Bros Television, which previously collaborated on the psychological horror series Castle Rock for Hulu.

Kevin Reilly, chief content officer at HBO Max and president of TNT, TBS and truTV, said: “What could be better than an original JJ idea and then Warner Bros letting them loose on iconic IP from Stephen King and the DC universe to provide more must-have programming on HBO Max?”

The shows will be executive produced by JJ Abrams and Bad Robot head of television Ben Stephenson. Rachel Rusch Rich, Bad Robot’s executive VP of television, will serve as a co-executive producer. Warner Bros International Television Distribution will be the global distributor of the programmes.