EXCLUSIVE: Kate McKinnon abandoned The Dropout, Limited Hulu drama series based on the ABC News / ABC Radio podcast on the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and her company, Theranos.
McKinnon was connected to the project from the beginning. Hulu has The Dropout a series ordered straight into the series almost two years ago, in April 2019, with the Emmy winner Saturday Night Live veteran as a star and executive producer.
The Dropout is moving forward without McKinnon, the sources said. The search is underway for a new actress to play the wretched businessman prodigy Holmes, with production aimed at the beginning of the summer.
Meanwhile, McKinnon remains committed to playing another notorious character who made headlines in a limited series based on a podcast; she’s set to star as Carole Baskin in Joe Exotic, which will air on NBC from NBCUniversal, the USA and Peacock.
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Produced by Disney’s Searchlight Television, The Dropout is executive produced by the presenter / creator of the podcast Rebecca Jarvis and producers Taylor Dunn and Victoria Thompson.
The Dropout released as a podcast in late January 2019 and turned into a two-hour documentary that aired on ABC News’ 20/20 in March of the same year.
Holmes, a chemical engineering prodigy, left Stanford to launch a healthcare technology company that promised to revolutionize blood tests, which became Theranos. The high-tech startup ended up being exposed as “massive fraud”, and in 2018, a grand federal jury indicted Holmes and the former chief operating officer of Theranos on nine charges of electronic fraud and two charges of conspiracy to commit electronic fraud for distribution. blood tests with falsified results for consumers.
McKinnon is one of the most popular members of the NBC cast Saturday Night Live where she’s been since 2012. She received seven Emmy nominations for her work on the sketch comedy show, winning in 2016 and 2017.