‘The Thing About Pam’, based on ‘Dateline’ stories and a complementary podcast, scored straight for the series.
Renee Zellweger is going to NBC to star in a limited series based on one of Dateline’s most popular true crime stories.
The network gave a direct choice for the series to The thing about Pam, based on a set of NBC news magazine stories and a complementary podcast. Zellweger will make her open TV debut in six episodes, in which she is also an executive producer.
The show is the first major pickup scripted by Susan Rovner, the director of entertainment content recently installed at NBCUniversal. The thing about Pam comes from Blumhouse Television, NBC News Studios and Zellweger Jessika Borsiczky’s Big Picture Co. (UnReal, House of Lies) is writing and will serve as a showrunner.
“When you think about what qualifies as a ‘must watch’, I’m not sure you could do better than Renee Zellweger’s, Blumhouse and Dateline“said Rovner.” The twists and turns of this saga are truly stranger than fiction, and in the hands of this incredibly talented artistic team, this series will bring a completely new perspective to a story that has already captivated millions. “
Blumhouse and NBC News Studios (premium content arm of the news division) partnered last year to develop scripted series based on NBC News content. The thing about Pam went into development in May 2020 as the first project of this partnership.
“Similar to our acclaimed and award-winning series of crimes, The Jinx and Sharp objects, we see this opportunity to fuel viewers’ appetite for strong, compelling stories, “said Jason Blum, CEO and founder of Blumhouse.” This opportunity to build a powerful, scripted franchise and work with the incomparable Renee Zellweger in her first leading role in TV broadcast, with a writer as talented as Jessika Borsiczky and adapting material from the treasure of Dateline in partnership with our friends at NBC, it’s unmatched. I couldn’t be more proud of the Blumhouse team for bringing it to a successful conclusion. “
Said Borsiczky: “Like someone who hasn’t missed an episode of Dateline in 10 years, what immediately stood out to me about Pam in other true crime stories is that while on its surface it has all the twists and turns of an exciting police mystery, it’s really a character story at its core that reflects in shape the American landscape back to us. “
The thing about Pam focuses on the 2011 murder of Betsy Faria. Her husband was convicted of the crime, but she insisted that she was innocent and subsequently had her conviction overturned. The crime triggers a chain of events that would expose a diabolical scheme involving Pam Hupp (Zellweger).
The real-life Hupp is serving a life sentence for a 2016 murder in Missouri. His story was the subject of several Dateline segments and a 2019 podcast that shares a title with the limited series.
“As NBC News Studios continues to build an impressive track record just a year after our launch, we couldn’t be more proud to work with this extraordinary team of contributors on our first foray into the roadmap,” said NBC News President Noah Oppenheim .
Added Liz Cole, president of NBC News Studios and executive producer of Dateline, “This story resonated with the public each time we covered it. We are excited to share it in a new way, collaborating with Renee and our incredible partners at Blumhouse and NBC.”
The limited series will mark Zellweger’s first regular role in a broadcast program. She starred in Netflix’s What if in 2019 and is leaving the Oscar for best actress for Judy last year. Your credits also include Cold Mountain, Jerry Maguire, a Bridget Jones movies and Chicago. It is represented by Carrabino Management and CAA.
Borsiczky is represented by ICM Partners, Rain Management and Jackoway Tyerman.
Borsiczky and Zellweger will be executive producers The truth about Pam with Carmella Casinelli, Cole, Oppenheim, Blum, Chris McCumber and Jeremy Gold.