You can’t keep an Oscar winner down too long: Fresh off Netflix’s one-and-done supernatural drama “The Boroughs,” Geena Davis is attached to executive-produce and star in “Dorothea,” a serial killer drama in the works at HBO.
Hailing from showrunner Joshua Michael Stern (“Graves”), based on a story co-written by Michael Rosenbaum (“Smallville”) and Jane Whitney, the potential true crime series is inspired by the story of infamous California serial killer Dorothea Puente.
According to Deadline, which first broke the news, “Dorothea” centers on “a Sacramento woman (Davis) who ran a boarding house for the less fortunate in the 1980s, but her seemingly benevolent actions belied her sinister motives. In reality, she was murdering her boarders and continuing to cash their social security checks. After evading suspicion for years, in part because of her disarming, matronly demeanor, Puente was ultimately arrested. After a wild trial, she was convicted for three of the murders and spent her last years in prison.”
Should the series move forward, it’d mark Davis’ first leading role in a television show since ABC’s short-lived “Commander in Chief,” which ran for a single season and ended in 2006.
In other casting news…
* “Shark Tank” has elevated Kendra Scott and Rashaun Williams to permanent Sharks, joining Barbara Corcoran, Robert Herjavec, Lori Greiner, Daymond John, Daniel Lubetzky, and Kevin O’Leary on the panel for Season 18 this fall. Guest Sharks will include Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast), Jeffrey Housenbold (CEO of Beast Industries), Mindy Kaling, J.J. Watt, Erin and Sara Foster, and “Dragon’s Den” vet Steven Bartlett.
* Emmy winner Barry Pepper (“The Kennedys”) has been tapped to star opposite Jeremy Strong in Paramount+’s “9/12,” a six-part limited series chronicling ailing 9/11 first responders’ legal fight for compensation. According to Deadline, Pepper will play Coach, a former NYPD police officer and 9/11 first responder suffering from leukemia.
* Harry Gilby (“The Last Kingdom”), Toby Regbo (“A Woman of Substance”), and Jessica Barden (“Dune: Prophecy”) will star as George, Richard, and Maria Cadbury in the BritBox original series “The Cadburys,” a six-part drama inspired by Deborah Cadbury’s book “Chocolate Wars.”
