CBS picks up Red Line pilot

A new Chicago-set TV drama from longtime collaborators Caitlin Parrish and Erica Weiss has been ordered to pilot by CBS, according to reports from The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline and Variety. Red Line spins indirectly out of Parrish’s play A Twist of Water, which was first produced by Chicago’s Route 66 Theatre Company in 2011, where it was directed by Weiss.

The play, which centers on a gay man and his adopted teenage daughter grieving the loss of her other dad, wove Chicago’s own history into its narrative. Red Line, the trade papers say, will follow the ripple effects on three Chicago families after a black doctor is shot and killed by a white police officer. The show’s executive producers include Ava DuVernay and Greg Berlanti.