HBO is developing Dorothea, a true crime drama starring and executive produced by Oscar winner Geena Davis.

Written by Joshua Michael Stern, who serves as showrunner, from a story co-written by Michael Rosenbaum and Jane Whitney, Dorothea is inspired by the real-life story of Dorothea Puente, California’s most notorious female serial killer.

The project originated with Smallville alum Rosenbaum who identified the idea and brought it to Bristol Circle Entertainment, the production company of former Sony Pictures Television Studios President Jeff Frost (Pluribus). Rosenbaum and his writing partner Whitney developed the series with Stern (Graves) before Davis was attached and the package was taken out, landing at HBO.

Davis, Stern, Rosenbaum and Frost executive produce; Whitney is a co-executive producer.

Dorothea centers on a Sacramento woman (Davis) who ran a boarding house for the less fortunate in the 1980s, but her seemingly benevolent actions belied her sinister motives.

In reality, she was murdering her boarders and continuing to cash their social security checks. After evading suspicion for years, in part because of her disarming, matronly demeanor, Puente was ultimately arrested. After a wild trial, she was convicted for three of the murders and spent her last years in prison.

For Davis, who is coming off the Netflix supernatural drama The Boroughs, this would mark the first series starring vehicle since the ABC political drama Commander In Chief. She will next be seen in the movies The Wrong Girls and The Kellys. Davis is repped by CAA, Untitled and Hanson, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman.

Stern, whose credits also include the movies Jobs and Swing Vote, is repped by Innovative Artists and Darren Trattner at Jackoway, Austen, Tyerman.

Rosenbaum is best known for his role as Lex Luthor in Smallville and Martinex in the Guardian of the Galaxy franchise. He is repped by Buchwald and Yorn, Levine, Barnes.

Frost, who stepped down as President of SPT Studios in 2022, is an executive producer on Vince Gilligan’s acclaimed new Apple TV drama series Pluribus, from SPT, which is headed into Season 2.

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