Paramount+ has ordered a new limited series about the unsolved 1996 murder of JonBenét Ramsey with Melissa McCarthy and Clive Owen set to star.
McCarthy will play Ramsey’s mother Patsy, while Owen will play patriarch John in the eight-episode true crime series. The story follows the Ramsey family “before and after” the tragic murder of six-year-old JonBenét, who had participated in numerous child pageants growing up in Boulder, Colorado. The mysterious circumstances of her death generated major media attention, putting her parents Patsy and John and her brother Burke in the center of significant controversy from both the law and the public.
The show, given the working title JONBENÉT RAMSEY, captures The Ramsey family “as they go through the painful loss of a child while facing intense public scrutiny caused by a media frenzy that caused this case to captivate an entire nation.”
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The logline continues: “At the heart of the series, it is the story of Patsy and John Ramsey – exploring the unbreakable partnership of these two complex people – as husband and wife, as mother and father – who had committed themselves and their children to building the narrative of a perfect, privileged life only to have it destroyed one Christmas night in 1996.”
Only McCarthy and Owen have been named so far in the cast, but Richard LaGravenese (Behind the Candelabra) has been named as showrunner and Anne Sewitsky (Presumed Innocent) will direct four of the eight episodes.
Earlier this year, Clive Owen chatted with Consequence about his starring turn in the AMC miniseries Monsieur Spade and taking heaps of inspiration from Humphrey Bogart. Meanwhile, Melissa McCarthy has also been stretching her TV muscles with a recent appearance in Season 4 of Only Murders in the Building.
