Ray Romano, Kaley Cuoco and Rita Wilson to star in 15-part series, as streamer also expands French scripted slate

HBO Max has ordered Greg Berlanti’s How To Survive Without Me, while also expanding its French slate with medical drama Rush and crime show Bodycam.

Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television is behind How To Survive Without Me, with the 15-episode series starring Ray Romano, Kaley Cuoco, Joshua Jackson and Rita Wilson.

Sarah Aubrey

Sarah Aubrey

The series - written by Berlanti and Bash Doran with Robbie Rogers also attached - explores how the matriarch of a family manages to keep her relatives connected from beyond the grave.

Sarah Aubrey, head of HBO Max originals, described the series as an “emotional, extraordinary story”, while Warner Bros TV’s chief Channing Dungey added that the show would “bring to life a deeply personal, heartfelt story… filled with laughter, and the kind of warmth that makes it instantly relatable.”

Sarah Schechter, Leigh London Redman and Robbie Rogers (via Berlanti Productions and its overall deal with Warner Bros. Television) are EPs, alongside Doran, Ryan O’Connell, and Daniel Minahan, who also directs.

The Warner Bros Discovery-owned streamer has also greenlit two dramas out of France, which were unveiled at this week’s Festival de la Fiction in La Rochelle after the streamer revealed it would be supporting local programming demands.

HBO Max, unlike global streamer rivals Disney+, Netflix and Prime Video, has struck a deal with French unions around sub-quota rules that dictate levels of doc and animation investment. The latter trio are challening those rules in court.

The new dramas from HBO Max are 8 x 45-minute medical series Rush, which follows doctors responding to emergencies. ER veteran Neal Baer is associate producer while Nils-Antoine Sambus is creator and writer.

Bodycam (8 x 30 minutes) is from Timothée Hochet (Calls) and Benjamin Adam (Privilèges), in collaboration with Mehdi Ouahab.

The drama explores what happens when two policeman shoot an unarmed individual and try to conceal the their actions. Their plans are thwarted, however, when the injured teenager escapes with their bodycam footage.

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