*Ava DuVernay is teaming with Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films, Participant Media and Tribeca Productions to bring the true story of the Central Park Five jogger case to Netflix in 2019, reports Variety.
Created, written and directed by DuVernay, the five-episode scripted series follows the true 1989 case of five teens who were wrongfully convicted of raping a woman in New York’s Central Park. The series exposes the breakdown of our criminal justice system, with each part focusing on one of the five teens from Harlem — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise — wrongly convicted of raping Trisha Meili in Central Park.
The series will span from the spring of 1989, when each were first questioned about the incident, to 2014 when they were exonerated and a settlement was reached with the city of New York.
“I had an extraordinary experience working with Netflix on “13TH” and am overjoyed to continue this exploration of the criminal justice system as a narrative project with Cindy Holland and the team there,” said DuVernay. “The story of the men known as Central Park Five has riveted me for more than two decades. In their journey, we witness five innocent young men of color who were met with injustice at every turn – from coerced confessions to unjust incarceration to public calls for their execution by the man who would go on to be the President of the United States.”
DuVernay also executive produces with Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King from Participant Media, Oprah Winfrey/Harpo Films, and Jane Rosenthal and Berry Welsh from Tribeca Productions.
The case also was the subject of the 2012 documentary film “The Central Park Five,” written by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon.
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