Kay Scarpetta series being brought to television by Jamie Lee Curtis and Nicole Kidman!

Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis are bringing a beloved book series to life.

The two A-listers are set to star in an upcoming Prime Video series based on Patricia Cornwell's mega-popular Kay Scarpetta series, according to Deadline.

Kidman will reportedly star as Scarpetta, a forensic pathologist crime fighter. Curtis will play her sister Dorothy.

Cornwell celebrated the news on Instagram Feb. 8, sharing a link to the story and writing, "Scarpetta friends, we've waited 33 years for this."

Deadline reports the series will be ordered for two eight-episode seasons and will also be executive produced by both Kidman and Curtis. Liz Sarnoff, best known for her work on Barry and Lost, will act as showrunner.

The Kay Scarpetta series began with the 1990 novel Postmortem. Since then, there have been a total of 26 books released in the series, including 2022's Livid. In all, over 100 million copies of the series have been sold worldwide.

Curtis—who was just nominated for her first Oscar thanks to her performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once—bought the Kay Scarpetta book rights back in June 2021.

"Patricia Cornwell is a bonafide literary trailblazer," Curtis said in a statement to Deadline at the time, "and collaborating with her to bring her beloved character Kay Scarpetta to life through the power of television and to introduce her to an entirely new audience is exciting."

The series will mark Curtis' first regular television gig since appearing as Cathy Munsch on Fox's Scream Queens from 2015 to 2016.

Despite going viral as the face of AMC Theaters, the Oscar-winning Kidman has found a home on the small screen recently—starring in 2020's The Undoing on HBO, 2021's Nine Perfect Strangers on Hulu and 2022's Roar on Apple TV+.

They've already released the first episode.

I've never heard of Kay Scarpetta.

I used to read the books, but life got in the way, and I stopped at book 3, so now i'm 23 books behind!

I DO want to get back into this character and i'm also interested now in all of the Lee Child Jack reacher books too...

I admit though as I get older, my interest wanes reading fiction for whatever reasons...

These two? A-Listers? I am not seeing this working? The mysteries are kind of hoky.

Bring back the Hardy Boys!

Or Nancy Drew.

It will be shit if it’s on Amazon Prime.

Jamie Lee Curtis is an A Lister? Truly 6 months ago she was slumming on Real Housewives and then panhandled her way into a nomination.

hey, is amazon changing it's fees?

I’ve read a couple of these books. They were awful. A case of the author falling in love with her character.

I remember over the years that people wanted Streep, Sharon Stone, or Pfeiffer to be Scarpetta. Now we end up with Nicole and Jamie Lee? Downgrade

The early books in the series were interesting, and then went right in the shitter.

Haven't we had sufficient of forensic science sleuths?

Lots of sapphic energy in this venture.

Kidman is a horrible horrible choice for the main role. What were the casting directors thinking?

What R16 said. I've read all of Cornwell's books and both Kidman and Curtis are the very apex of cringe casting. The Scarpetta stories are often far more about her relationship with her forensic colleagues, niece Lucy (lesbian in the books. One hopes the developers retain that), lover/husband Benton and off-sider Pete Marino than forensic who dunnits.

Cornwell wrote a well-researched, very readable series. It is indeed a shame that they're going for cents (and dollars) instead of sense.

Nicole Kidman? Really? I always pictured Scarpetta looking like Cornwell herself. Someone above mentioned Sharon Stone as a better choice. I agree although she might be a bit old for the role now. I can't remember how old Scarpetta is in the books. 40s? Kate Winslet would have been a good choice, or Rachel McAdams, Kirsten Dunst, Charlize, and many others. Anyone other than the frozen, overexposed Kidman who I loved until her real face disappeared.

It will be interesting to see if they decide to be faithful to the books and keep them set in the era in which they were written/set. Technology in medicine, law enforcement, and communication has changed radically in the past 30 years, so the earlier stories may seem very dated.

I really enjoyed the books way back when. Like others have said, I am having trouble picturing Kidman as Scarpetta, but she has surprised me before.

I quit reading the books about 10 volumes in because they got a little annoying. (OK, maybe a LOT annoying) because Scarpetta eventually turned into this wonder woman who was adept at absolutely everything. Underwater crime scene? Kay has a SCUBA license we have never heard about before! How lucky is it Kay has experience cracking codes! And so on and so forth.

Who's being casted as Marino? He's such a freak.

Anyone able to find out who is cast as Lucy, the lesbian niece?

The books went to absolute shit about 6 or 7 volumes into the series. I honestly figured Cornwell just became such a huge drunk by that point that she could no longer write coherently. That's how bad they were. Entire storylines just left unresolved. It was really bad.

Kidman is nothing like Scarpetta as she is in the books. Nothing. And, did her sister play some bigger role in the later books because I don't even remember her character in the books. Lucy was the main familial connection Scarpetta kept around. This is going to be terrible.

[quote] Who's being casted as Marino?

Oh, dear.

[quote]Jamie Lee Curtis is an A Lister? Truly 6 months ago she was slumming on Real Housewives and then panhandled her way into a nomination.

Both of her parents, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, were A-list movie stars and Oscar-nominees.

Lea Thompson ate their lunch!

R26 is the lowest paid shill in the world.

I liked the first ones I read but they got worse and worse and Cornwell's a whackjob. I recall when she was stalking Jodie Foster though thankfully she didn't shoot anybody.

R24 Why didn't you just fixded it for me?

Fank you for nothing.

Kidman is all wrong for Scarpetta.

The early books were terrific. Then Scarpetta became the woman in peril forever hunted by evil killers she’s helping put away, then Lucy ate the series and Kay morphed into a dark, paranoid state because, you know, she’s the most hunted woman in America due to her brilliance.

Is the woman on the left, the inspiration for Kay Scarpetta?

I googled "Kay Scarpetta" and her face kept coming up.

She wrote the books and it’s clear Kay is her ideal self.

Met her. V. scary.

She not only stalked Jodie Foster, she also had plastic surgery to try and look like her. I think Kidman will be herself - icy but sexual.

Katherine Heigl could easily morph into the role of Scarpetta. She's got the look.

I devoured the books when the series was first published, but as the series progressed further and further, the characters of Scarpetta, Lucy, and Marino became increasingly hostile and angry to the point of becoming unhinged. Marino was downright scary.

R36... which book in the series (how many books in) would you suggest a reader like myself stop at and discontinue reading anymore?

i will watch this. I glad this is on amazon.

I'll watch. I read the first few books and thought they were ok but could have been better.

Please don't tell me JLC plays the lesbian detective

Are they going to play lovers???

Isn't kidman a little too old for this role?

I read a number of books from that series until it started to go off the rails. Kidman will be woefully miscast as Kay Scarpetta, but then, what *hasn't* she been miscast in in the last 20 years?

Amy Adams would have been a great choice, but no one asked me.

I guess shitty little mini serieses of eight episodes is what Nicole Kidman is going to be doing for the rest of her career.

Awesome! I have been waiting for some kind of Kay Scarpetta tv stuff for years. I have always wondered why a series hasn't been made earlier when the character and books were so popular.

JLC is still on a career high. She had one of the most lauded return to acting in films, ever, both critically acclaimed and high ticket sales. I think this is a no brainer, good project to green light. The two lead actresses are solid.

They could tweak the plot, or not.

I will watch. I am looking forward to these. Glad it is on Amazon.

This sounds awful. These books were good once but they are dated now. In the early 90s Demi Moore was attached to the rumored feature film. I always thought Lindsey Crouse would have been great.

No on Amy Adams. She’s no Scarpetta, either.

Charlize Theron makes a perfect Scarpetta

I was googling to see if anyone else played the character, and I found a photo of Angelina Jolie.

Would she be a good Kay? She's nearly 50, so it would be age-appropriate.

This was at the "Starcasm" website.

Nicole Kidman is a horrible choice to play KS. Her face can barely move

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

At R53 I posted,

"Why not go for the obvious, and cast Jodie Foster?

She has done well in cop dramas before."

I forgot about the Daily Mail ban here on Datalounge.

Does anyone remember the thread called something like "Let's be excerpts from a Kay Scarpetta mystery"? People here got her tone down exactly.

My favorite post was someone replicating the language of a sex scene, which of course involved Kay being masterful and commanding as a gentle man trembled delicately in her strong muscular embrace. (That's actually how Cornwall writes heterosexual sex scenes.)

[quote]Awesome! I have been waiting for some kind of Kay Scarpetta tv stuff for years. I have always wondered why a series hasn't been made earlier when the character and books were so popular.

I seem to remember there were several proposed movie and TV adaptations of at least one Cornwell/Scarpetta book many years ago. But apparently none of them ever got produced.

She approached Jodie Foster to play the role years ago. Jodie was not interested.

Nicole will wear a short bitch wig. Unfortunately her face.

Is Scarpetta now identifying as a mannequin? Kidman can barely impersonate a live human being.

She kind of stalked Jodie, allegedly creeping her out to the point where she wanted nothing to do with the role.

Didn’t Marino try to molest Kay or something? It was sure bizarre.

Cornwell destroyed her face with hideous plastic surgery. She was an attractive woman before then.

I met her in 2001. She has a very intense, dark vibe.

Like many have already said, the early books were great. Over Christmas I started her latest, "Livid." It had to go back to the library, so I didn't get a chance to finish it but I'd pretty much given up on it at that stage anyway. Tedious in the extreme. I tried to read her previous book "Autopsy," also gave up on that! I get the feeling Cornwell is on a one book a year contract, regardless of quality. Her reputation seems to guarantee sales.

The last book of hers I read was so lame and it was clear that her editors were letting her get away with minimal effort.

The opening scene went on for at least 120 pages, mostly exploring Kay’s paranoid thoughts about all the killers who are determined to bring her down and how she couldn’t trust anyone in her life. She probably wrote it over a day or so. And Kay’s mind was so unstable that it was unpleasant spending any time with her.

[quote] The opening scene went on for at least 120 pages, mostly exploring Kay’s paranoid thoughts about all the killers who are determined to bring her down and how she couldn’t trust anyone in her life. She probably wrote it over a day or so. And Kay’s mind was so unstable that it was unpleasant spending any time with her.

Then Jamie Lee Curtis sounds perfect for the role!

I also gave up on Cornwell's books a long time ago. The first several were entertaining crime fiction and then she either just got lazy or just got more drunk and crazy because the books got progressively terrible. I haven't read any in the series in years.

They're really going to change things around because in the book's Scarpetta's sister is a very minor character.

I'm sure her last book was subtitled: "Cuz I Need a Paycheck".

I guess JLC is a bigger star now than Nicole.

Fare la scarpetta = doing the scarpetta = mopping up sauce with your bread.

Geez JLC is a fucking A lister now?? Whoever her publicist is certainly deserves a nice retainer bonus.

Kay’s marriage to Benton got me all kerfuffled. Just too Harlequin romance to be convincing.. I lost interest after all the high tech crap and Lucy flying around in spaceship helicopters shooting lasers …The early books had an authentic psycho creepiness and Ms. Cornwall did a great job writing about the sicko perps…now it’s all about the crime solvers, BORR INGG!

If it's on Amazon it's going to suck.

Good point r73. The first several books focused on the psycho killer of the novel and Scarpetta trying to catch him, they were interesting thrillers. Then the Scarpetta series became more about technology and gadgets and way too much focus on Scarpetta and Benton's boring relationship and Scarpetta's niece Lucy, the fantasy super lesbian that Cornwell clearly wishes she could be.

I think Sharon Stone would've made a great Scarpetta 20 years ago, but she's way too old now.

Kay Scarpetta with Jack Reacher!

I remember reading Postmortem, it was a great, scary book. It was original for its time, but in the last years the concept has been used to death (pun unintended). Like all here, i read about her next 4 or 5 books, the quality decreasing rapidly. Some even started with a good idea but got derailed quickly.

The thing is she’s very crazy. I think that is why this only taking place now, much to late. But maybe they can get a good tv series out ofit, with heavy editing on the later books. As for Nicole Kidman she’s not typical casting but I believe she can do this, she’s done much more difficult roles than this.

Patricia Cornwell hit at exactly the right time in the early 90s when forensic science began to capture the public's imagination. Silence of the Lambs really kicked it off and the first Scarpetta novel came out shortly after and was a big hit. Forensic stuff is very familiar now but at the time it was a new genre and Cornwell was right at the beginning of its popularity.

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