Melissa McCarthy attending the Golden Globes in JanuaryMelissa McCarthy is set to take the lead in a new true crime drama inspired by one of the most talked-about unsolved murders in recent memory.
On Wednesday, it was revealed that the Oscar nominee would join Clive Owen in the new Netflix miniseries The Murder Of JonBenét Ramsey, in which they will play Patsy and John Ramsey, the parents of the six-year-old child pageant queen, who was murdered in 1996 and whose killing remains unresolved.
Child actor Emily Mitchell will take on the pivotal role of JonBenét, having previously appeared in projects like Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice and, more recently, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy.
According to Netflix’s Tudum outlet, the series will “explore how the murder of the six-year-old captivated – and divided – the nation” and be “told from multiple angles”, allowing The Murder Of JonBenét Ramsey to explore “the speculation and unresolved grief” surrounding the high-profile case.
Also appearing in the cast will be American Horror Story’s Alison Pill, Owen Teague (who starred in It and It Chapter Two), and two-time Emmy winner Margo Martindale.
Serving as showrunner will be Richard LaGravenese, who previously directed the controversial Liberace movie Behind The Candelabra and the romantic drama The Bridges Of Madison County.
John and Patsy Ramsey, parents of JonBenét Ramsey, pictured in August 2000Tudum’s piece on the show explained: “The series focuses on one of the most infamous unsolved murder cases in American history, and the devastating personal and public reckoning that followed JonBenét Ramsey’s death.
“Ramsey was murdered in the basement of the family’s home in Boulder, Colorado. After a national media frenzy, nearly 30 years – and more than 21,016 tips, letters, and emails later – the killer has not been found.”
An official release date for The Murder Of JonBenét Ramsey is yet to be announced, although the streaming giant has claimed it will “land on Netflix exclusively this winter”.
The case was previously explored in the miniseries Perfect Murder, Perfect Town and the critically-panned docudrama Getting Away With Murder: The JonBenét Ramsey Story, both of which were released in 2000.
