HBO Casts Melonie Diaz As Lead In Drama Project ‘Laughs Unlimited’

Fruitvale Station’s Melonie Diaz has been cast as the lead in Laughs Unlimited (working title), a drama series project about a war vet’s struggles with post traumatic stress disorder, which has been on the works at HBO for the past year and a half. It has not been picked up to pilot yet, with HBO doing preliminary casting and working on the budget as it does on most scripts it is high on before making a formal pilot order.

Laughs Unlimited hails from Oren Moverman, who has directed Rampart and The Messenger, and Anthony Swofford, best known for writing the book Jarhead. It centers on Army Reserve medic Billie Crown (Diaz) who, after fifteen months as a combat medic in Afghanistan, discovers that “real life” is just as perilous as war. Duty as a Sacramento cop offers the same dangers and thrills as combat, and repairing relationships with her husband and young daughter is as difficult as saving a comrade after an IED attack. Moverman and Swofford wrote the script and are executive producing along with X-Men: Days Of Future Past producer Lauren Shuler Donner, actress Jennifer Beals, Jack Leslie of The Donners Co., and Adena Chawke of Greenlight Management. Diaz, repped by Gersh and Thruline, earned an Indie Spirit Award nomination for her performance in Fruitvale Station. She recently wrapped production on The Cobbler.