Starz nabs Julia Roberts-fronted series about the Watergate scandal
By Mads Lennon
Starz has picked up the upcoming anthology series Gaslit starring Julia Roberts and Sean Penn. The first season will focus on the untold story of Martha Mitchell, who played a pivotal role in exposing President Nixon’s Watergate scandal. Roberts will play Martha, a larger-than-life celebrity Arkansan socialite, and Penn will portray her husband, Attorney General John Mitchell, who doubles as Nixon’s best friend and most trusted advisor.
Mitchell will ultimately have to decide between Nixon and his wife, who he is still hopelessly in love with even as she becomes the first person to sound the alarm on Nixon’s Watergate involvement. Gaslit is being adapted from Slate‘s award-winning podcast Slow Burn, directed and executive produced by Matt Ross (Captain Fantastic). The series is created, written and executive produced by Robert Pickering.
The high-profile series comes on the heels of Starz’s recent #TakeTheLead initiative, a comprehensive effort from the company to deepen its commitment to creating stories by, for, and about women and underrepresented audiences.
Apart from Ross and Pickering, Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot, Homecoming) will also serve as an executive producer, reuniting him with Roberts after their previous Amazon Prime Video collaboration.
“In ‘Gaslit,’ we not only have the opportunity to tell an incredible untold story in bringing Martha Mitchell’s historic role in Watergate to the forefront, but we are also incredibly lucky to have a dream cast including Julia and Sean and the best creative team and partners we could have asked for. We could not be more excited to bring this story to the global Starz audience and continue the network’s commitment to spotlighting premium stories that appeal to women while super serving our core audience,” said Christina Davis, President of Original Programming for Starz.
When will Gaslit premiere on Starz?
Production on the television series is set to begin this spring, which means it probably won’t premiere on the premium cable channel until the fall or winter, pending any pandemic-related complications.
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Are you looking forward to Gaslit on Starz? What do you think of the casting choices in Julia Roberts and Sean Penn? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.