HBO hires Jeremy Carver for cop drama American Blue starring Milo Ventimiglia

HBO is developing a cop drama called American Blue, hiring veteran showrunner Jeremy Carver to make the series and casting Milo Ventimiglia as the lead, per Deadline. Ventimiglia will also serve as a co-executive producer, and filmmaker David Ayer is set to helm the pilot. American Blue follows police officer Brian "Milk" Milkovich as he returns to his hometown of Joliet, Illinois to try to rescue a beleaguered police force while seeking personal redemption.

Ventimiglia is best known for roles on Gilmore Girls and This Is Us. Head of Max Original Programming Sarah Aubrey framed the series as part of a push toward longer-season storytelling, saying, "American Blue will take audiences inside a gritty and authentic police drama, reflecting the myriad challenges in policing today.

As with The Pitt, our goal of longer seasons will allow viewers to sink deeply into this world across multiple episodes and to return to it on an annual basis." The move follows the success of HBO's medical drama The Pitt, which won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series last year and is notable for producing 15-episode seasons released on a yearly schedule.

MovieWeb noted HBO is leaning into more traditional, modestly budgeted series rather than the shorter, more lavish epics of recent years. MovieWeb also reported HBO has ordered the family drama How To Survive Without Me and that the latest Game of Thrones prequel, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, is keeping a smaller scale.

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