Elizabeth Banks To Play Karen Read In Limited Series In Works At Prime Video

EXCLUSIVE: One of the more polarizing court cases in recent memory is about to get the Hollywood treatment. Sources tell Deadline that Prime Video and Warner Bros Television are in development on a new limited series set around the Karen Read trial with Elizabeth Banks on board to play the woman at the center of the case.

Justin Noble is on board as showrunner and also will pen the series and serve as executive producer, with David E. Kelley on board to also exec produce. Noble has an overall deal with WB Television.

Banks also will exec produce through her Brownstone banner along with her producing partner Max Handelman and Krissy Wall. Matt Kelley will exec produce through his David E. Kelley Productions banner along with Matt Tinker. Jen Sargent, Marshall Lewy, Aaron Hart and Jeni Mulein also will exec produce through their Wondery banner, as will Rachel Stockman and Dan Abrams through their Law & Crime company.

Based on the Law & Crime and Wondery podcast Karen, the series follows the trial that captivated the country and turned Read into a household name. When a Boston police officer is found dead in the snow, all eyes are on his girlfriend, Karen Read. Fracturing a community, some believe she is guilty of first-degree murder, but others believe she’s the victim of a sweeping cover-up by state and local law enforcement. This series explores society’s obsession with true crime, the allure of conspiracy and the deepening crisis of trust in our institutions.

The trial not only became a recurring story on morning talk shows across the country but quickly was turned into multiple news specials as well as a Netflix doc before the final verdict was even delivered. Insiders tell Deadline that Noble came to Brownstone with the idea for the show, and once the trial ended this past spring they began packaging the remaining elements with Kelley — who has delivered some of the best courtroom drama in the past 30 years — boarding as a producer along with Wondery and Law & Order.

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The series marks a reunion for Banks and Prime Video, who just worked together on hit series The Better Sister, which earned Banks some of the best reviews of her career. She also recently was seen in the FX series Mrs. America.

Noble most recently worked on the HBO Max series The Sex Lives of College Girls and prior to that also served as a writer on Never Have I Ever and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Kelley is coming off another hit courtroom drama, Presumed Innocent for Apple, which has several Emmy nominations including Best Actor for Jake Gyllenhaal.

Wondery is also coming off an Emmy-nominated series with Dying for Sex. They are also the producers behind Dr. Death.

Banks and Brownstone are repped by UTA, Untitled Entertainment and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole. Noble is repped by WME and Hansen Jacobsen. Kelley is repped by CAA.

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