Netflix Nears Series Order for Veena Sud Racial Crime Drama ‘Seven Seconds’

'The Accountant' director Gavin O'Connor will helm the pilot.

Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

'The Accountant' director Gavin O'Connor will helm the pilot.

Netflix and Veena Sud are reuniting.

The streaming giant is nearing a series pickup for Seven Seconds, a racial crime drama from The Killing showrunner, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

In the drama, tensions run high between African-American citizens and Caucasian cops in Jersey City, where a teenage African-American boy is critically injured by a cop.

Sud would serve as showrunner on the series, which is eyeing a 10-episode order. She will exec produce with Lawrence Bender, Kevin Brown, Alex Reznik and Gavin O'Connor, the latter whom would also direct. Fox 21, where Sud is under an overall deal, will produce Seven Seconds.

Netflix declined to comment.

Seven Seconds is the latest TV project to tackle the Black Lives Matter movement that has taken the country by storm and has sparked protests and unrest in places like Baltimore and Ohio, where unarmed African-American men have been gunned down by police. Empire, UnREAL and Black-ish are just a few of the shows that have touched on the topic in the last year.

The series would bring Sud back to Netflix, which resurrected her crime drama The Killing for a fourth season in 2014 after it had been canceled by AMC. The WME-repped Sud's other credits include Cold Case and the big screen crime drama The Salton Sea.

For O'Connor, the news comes days after his Ben Affleck drama The Accountant brought in an impressive $24.7 million to open atop the weekend box office. O'Connor's credits include Warrior, Pride and Glory and Miracle, as well as directing the pilot of FX's The Americans. He is repped by WME and Morris Yorn.

Seven Seconds would be the latest drama series for Netflix as it continues its $5 billion spending spree on original content. Other forthcoming drama series The Crown, Iron Fist and The Defenders from Marvel, The OA, 13 Reasons Why, G.L.O.W., Mindhunter, Ozark, Altered Carbon and a Lost in Space reboot, among others.

Fox 21's originals slate also includes American Crime Story at FX, Showtime's Dice, Queen of the South for USA and the forthcoming Genius for Nat Geo.

Netflix

Kate Stanhope