Rosario Dawson Bringing Graphic Novel 'O.C.T.' to A&E With 'Walking Dead' Producer (Exclusive)

Rosario Dawson is teaming with The Walking Dead's Gale Anne Hurd to bring her graphic novel to A&E.

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The drama project, O.C.T., is being developed with both women attached as executive producers. Though O.C.T. -- an  acronym for the NYPD’s Occult Crimes Taskforce -- is still in its early stages, it is being considered as a star vehicle for the Sin City actress.

The scripted drama, an increasingly appealing genre for the cable network, will explore the inner workings of the task force, which was established after the Civil War to make the New York City streets safe from practitioners of black magic, demons from another dimension and all manner of supernatural malcontents.

Like the graphic novel, co-created by Dawson and David Atchison and Tony Shasteen, O.C.T. will center on the character of Sophia Ortiz, a new member of the bureau who uses magic, spells, ghosts, the undead and the unnatural. At the heart of the story is an ongoing struggle between the O.C.T. detectives and an organized demon-force attempting to take over Manhattan. (At one point, Dimension Films was developing a big-screen version.)

News of the project comes as A&E wraps up its best quarter on record, with the network best known for Hoarders and Storage Wars posting gains in the key adults 25-to-54 demo (now averaging 819,000 viewers) and with total viewers (1.6 million). If ultimately ordered to series, O.C.T. would join a scripted slate that includes The Glades, Breakout Kings and the upcoming Longmire.

The script will be penned by The Unusuals’ Jorge Zamacona, who also will serve as a producer alongside Dawson and Hurd, who is particularly well-versed in the graphic novel to TV business as evidenced by the success of AMC's Walking Dead. Atchison, Ford Gilmore and Shasteen, the graphic novel's illustrator, will join them as producers.

Zamacona is repped by CAA and Gang Tyre; Dawson is repped by CAA, Untitled Entertainment and Bloom Hergott; Atchison and Shasteen are repped by Illuminati Entertainment and Harris Miller.

Email: Lacey.Rose@THR.com; Twitter: @LaceyVRose