Filming has begun on Ava DuVernay’s Central Park crime drama, The Central Park Five, which is shooting in New York. The limited series, with four episodes, will stream on Netflix in 2019.
Central Park Five will chronicle five teenagers of color who were convicted of the rape of a jogger in Central Park that they did not commit. It will focus on the five teens from Harlem—Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise. The series will span from the spring of 1989, when each was first questioned about the incident, to 2014, when they were exonerated and a settlement was reached with the city of New York.
Four of the five spent about seven years in prison, while the fifth served around 13 years.
Creator DuVernay will write and direct. Her work includes directing the film A Wrinkle in Time and executive producing the series Queen Sugar.
Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King from Participant Media, Oprah Winfrey from Harpo Films, Jane Rosenthal and Berry Welsh from Tribeca Productions will executive produce along with DuVernay through her banner, Forward Movement.
The cast includes Michael K. Williams, Felicity Huffman, Vera Farmiga and Niecy Nash.
Chris Chalk will play an adult Yusef Salaam and Ethan Herisse the young Salaam. Freddy Miyares will play adult Raymond Santana and Marquis Rodriguez the young Santana. Justin Cunningham plays adult Kevin Richardson and Asante Blackk the teen version. Jharrel Jerome will play both the young and adult Korey Wise, and Jovan Adepo plays adult Antron McCray while Caleel Harris plays the teen.
