FX Orders ‘The Border’ Pilot Based on Don Winslow’s Cartel Trilogy, E.J. Bonilla to Star

A pilot has been ordered by FX for “The Border,” announced FX’s president of entertainment, Nick Grad, on Wednesday.

Based on Don Winslow’s award-winning, critically acclaimed Border trilogy (“The Power of the Dog,” “The Cartel,” “The Border”), the story is said to “explore America’s failed 50-year war on drugs through the intertwining narratives of characters on both sides of the Mexican-American border: an obsessive Mexican-American DEA agent, a young boxing promoter who inherits a drug empire, a jaded teenager who rises to power in the world of high class escorts, and an Irish kid from the streets of Hell’s kitchen who becomes a ruthless, international hitman”, per the network. “

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The New York Times called the Cartel Trilogy “a hybrid of The Godfather and War and Peace” and “this generation’s defining work of American mass-culture storytelling on the border.” FX nabbed the rights to the trilogy in 2019.

Daniel Zelman (“Damages,” “Bloodline”) will write and serve as showrunner and executive producer along with Shane Salerno (Salinger, Avatar sequels), who adapted “The Border” for television with Zelman, Winslow, Diego Gutierrez, Jayro Bustamante (“La Llorona,” “Tremors”) and Scott Free.

Bustamante will direct the pilot and Anabel Hernández will serve as consulting producer. The pilot will be produced by FX Productions and begin production in Mexico in 2023.

E.J. Bonilla (“The Old Man,” “The Long Road Home”) has been cast in the lead role as Art Keller. He’s joined by Frank Blake (“Sanditon,” “Normal People”) who will play Sean Callan, Annie Shapero (“Red Skies”) who will portray Nora Hayden, Sebastián Buitrón (“Amsterdam,” “Narcos,””No fue mi culpa”) who will star as Adan Barrera.

Bonilla is represented by Innovative Artists and MKSD Talent Management. Blake is represented by Curtis Brown, the Lisa Richards Agency and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher. Shapero is represented by Karli Doumanis at Zero Gravity Management and Collective Talent Management (Australia). Buitrón is represented by Lizzy Cancino at Jerry ML. Bordonada is represented by Park Noack Agency and Authentic Talent & Literary Management.

Zelman, Salerno, and Gutierrez are represented by CAA. Bustamante is represented by CAA and M88.

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