Patricia Arquette has really been bitten by the true crime bug. The Severance actor is set to star in Murdaugh Murders, a new limited series from Michael D. Fuller (Quarry, Rectify) and co-creator Erin Lee Carr (Britney vs Spears, I Love You, Now Die). The series will be partially adapted from Liz Farrell and Mandy Matney's popular Murdaugh Murders Podcast, which investigates the 2021 case of former lawyer Alex Murdaugh, who was found guilty of murdering his wife, Maggie, and their 22-year-old son, Paul, in a highly publicized South Carolina trial in 2023. Murdaugh is currently serving two life sentences with no possibility of parole. His motion for a new trial was dismissed by a judge in January.
Arquette will play Maggie in the series. Her other recent true crime projects include 2019's The Act, which told the story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard (played by Joey King in the Hulu series), and 2018's Escape at Dannemora, which was based on the 2015 Clinton Correctional Facility escape. Even her upcoming fictional projects sound a little true crime-y; she's set to star in Kenneth Branagh's The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde and Kirill Sokolov's They Will Kill You.
Check out more of the week’s casting news below:
- •Picard's Todd Stashwick has joined Paul Bettany and James Spader in the upcoming, still-untitled Vision series. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Stashwick will play "an assassin who is on the trail of android and the technology he possesses."
- •Alison Brie will be playing one of the more cleverly-named villains in animation history. The GLOW actor just landed the role of Evil-Lyn in Amazon MGM Studios' and Mattel's live-action Masters Of The Universe movie, where she'll star alongside Nicholas Galitzine as He-Man and Camila Mendes as Teela. [via Deadline]
- •It's good news for Brie's old Community co-star, Danny Pudi, as well. He's joining the upcoming Fox comedy Going Dutch alongside Denis Leary, Taylor Misiak, Laci Mosley, Hal Cumpston, and Dempsey Bryk. According to Deadline, the single-cam comedy follows "arrogant loudmouth U.S. Army Colonel Patrick Quinn (Leary), who after an epically unfiltered rant, is reassigned to the Netherlands, where he is punished with a command position at the least important army base in the world."
- •After being possessed by her ancient witch aunt and whatever the hell else she got up to at Riverdale High, Madelaine Petsch is finally graduating. She's starring in and executive producing Maintenance Required, a romantic comedy about two rival mechanics who unknowingly bond in an online car forum. Jacob Scipio will play her enemy/lover. [via Deadline]
- •Melissa McCarthy is starring in a JonBenét Ramsey series for Paramount+, in which she will not be playing JonBenét despite Twitter/X's many jokes. She'll play JonBenét's mom, Patsy, alongside Clive Owen as JonBenét's dad, John.
- •Amy Adams may be our Nightbitch, but she's also a "mom about to rock." The Oscar-nominee is producing and starring in Lazy Susans, a comedy about the moms who formed real-life Boston rock band The Lazy Susans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Annie Mumolo (Bridesmaids) and Stan Chervin (Moneyball) have been tapped to write the screenplay. [via Deadline]
- •Bodkin star Robyn Cara has been cast in a recurring role on USA's The Rainmaker, based on the John Grisham novel of the same name. She'll play Kelly Riker, "a lonely young woman trapped in an abusive marriage who befriends her neighbor, Rudy." [via Deadline]
- •Uh-oh: Murray Bartlett is going back to the world of cut-throat rich people. (Spoiler alert: it didn't work out so well for him last time.) The White Lotus actor will star alongside Eve Hewson (Bad Sisters) in the Hulu comedy pilot Downforce, which follows "Victoria (Hewson), the estranged daughter of a storied racing team’s owner, [and] Sir Trevor (Bartlett), who is thrust back into the family business, leaving the pair to find common ground or risk destroying the team’s legacy." [via Deadline]
- •A new Anne Rice adaptation is coming to AMC. The network is following up Interview With The Vampire and Mayfair Witches with Anne Rice’s The Talamasca, a show about a secret society responsible for hunting mythical creatures across the globe. Nicholas Denton has been cast to play Guy Anatole, a law student courted by the society. [via Deadline].
- •The Boroughs just got a bunch of new residents. Alfred Molina, Geena Davis, Alfre Woodard, Denis O’Hare, Clarke Peters, and Bill Pullman have all signed on to star in the new supernatural series produced by the Duffer brothers, which follows a retirement community that must face an otherworldly threat. So, basically, Golden Stranger Things. [via Deadline]
- •Griffin Dunne is joining the field for the upcoming Darren Aronofsky thriller Caught Stealing, which follows a former baseball player who gets caught up in the criminal underworld (hence the clever title). Previously announced cast members include Austin Butler, Zoë Kravitz, Regina King, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Will Brill, and Bad Bunny. [Emma Keates]
- •Christopher Abbot may be going straight from Wolf Man to a little left of paradise. The Poor Things actor is in talks to star opposite Florence Pugh in East Of Eden, an upcoming Netflix limited series based on John Steinbeck's novel of the same name. [via Deadline]
- •We still don't know whether Aaron Taylor-Johnson is actually playing the next James Bond, but that certainly hasn't stopped him from signing on to Bond-adjacent crime thrillers in the meantime. His next project is director Cary Fukunaga's Blood On Snow, which will be written by author Jo Nesbø, based on his novel of the same name. Tom Hardy is also attached to star in the project. [via Deadline]
- •It's a big year for big feet! First, there was Sasquatch Sunset. Now, Bigfeet (Bigfoots?) are stealing the spotlight once again in Song Of The Bigfoot, "an uplifting tale about three lovably quirky Bigfoot seekers who become desperately lost in the wilderness and are thrust into a life-and-death ordeal," according to Deadline. Tre Hale, Baron Vaughn, Vivian Bang, and Rhys Darby have signed on to lead the project.
- •Chloe Bennet and Phil Dunster are on a mission to discover if the truth is out there. They're leading upcoming indie Hello Out There, a film about two cousins who set out on a road trip to investigate Area 51. [via Deadline]
- •Ruby Rose is attached to star in Drowning Pool, a thriller from Saw V director David Hackl that sounds like it was ripped straight out of the True Detective slush pile. According to Deadline, the film follows a woman named Katherine (Rose) who refuses to believe that her missing sister actually drowned. She soon discovers "that her sibling wasn’t the only woman to vanish into the ocean without a trace. With little help from local authorities, a stubborn and resourceful Katherine uncovers a string of progressively frightening clues, eventually leading her right into the jaws of an ancient ritualistic evil," according to Deadline.
- •Phoebe Dynevor, you will always be famous—literally. The Bridgerton star is set to lead A24 and director Jody Hill's Famous opposite Zac Efron. The thriller follows a man named Lance (Efron), who realizes he's the spitting image of a major celebrity and travels to L.A. to pursue his own Hollywood dreams.
