Selma Director Ava DuVernay to Helm Robert DeNiro’s CBS Pilot

Selma director Ava DuVernay is expanding her presence in TV. DuVernay has signed on to direct the CBS drama pilot For Justice, which comes from Robert DeNiro’s production company.

News of her deal to helm For Justice comes just days after OWN announced that DuVernay is partnering with Oprah Winfrey to adapt the novel Queen Sugar into a TV series.

For Justice, from executive producer and writer Rene Balcer (Law & Order), is based on the James Patterson novel The Thomas Berryman Number. The pilot centers on an FBI agent who works in the Department of Civil Rights Division’s criminal section. The agent finds herself torn between her professional life and the radical family she was born into.

Balcer and Patterson executive produce For Justice with DeNiro, Jane Rosenthal, Bill Robinson and Leopoldo Gout. Berry Welsh is co-executive producer. CBS Television Studios is behind the show.

DuVernay’s TV credits also include directing on ABC’s Scandal; the ESPN Nine for IX documentary “Venus vs.”; and BET’s My Mic Sounds Nice: The Truth About Women in Hip Hop.