![Joe Barton](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/GettyImages-935887248-H-2021-1610394695.jpg?w=1296&h=730&crop=1)
HBO Max has found a new chief for its Gotham PD series.
Giri/Haji creator Joe Barton will take over as showrunner on the project, a spinoff of The Batman feature film. Barton steps in to the role two months after Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire veteran Terence Winter exited the show over creative differences.
The untitled show, ordered straight to series in July, is designed as a companion piece to director Matt Reeves’ The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson in the title role. Reeves is among the executive producers of the show, which will further examine the corruption in Gotham City set up in the film. The series is part of WarnerMedia’s effort to build a new Batman universe across multiple platforms.
Barton created and wrote the BBC and Netflix’s well-reviewed Giri/Haji, which was nominated for a BAFTA Award for best drama series. His credits also include feature films My Days of Mercy, The Ritual and the upcoming Invasion, and series including AMC’s Humans and the BBC’s Our World War. He is repped by ICM Partners, Grandview and Independent Talent Group.
The series is formally untitled but has been going by the working title of Gotham Central, a nod to Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka’s police procedural comic, and GCPD.
At DC’s FanDome event last summer, Reeves said the series would be told from a crooked cop’s point of view and would serve as a prequel to his Batman Year Two movie. “The story is actually a battle for his soul,” Reeves said at the time. It’s unclear whether The Batman stars Pattinson and Jeffrey Wright (Commissioner James Gordon) will appear in the show.
Warner Bros. TV is producing the series. Reeves executive produces via his 6th & Idaho banner, which has an overall deal at WBTV, along with Barton, Dylan Clark and Daniel Pipski and Adam Kassan of 6th & Idaho. The latter’s Rafi Crohn is a co-executive producer.
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