Scarpetta Officially Ordered at Amazon: Nicole Kidman, Jamie Lee Curtis to Lead Adaptation of Patricia Cornwell Novels

Matt Webb Mitovich and Rebecca Iannucci
·2-min read

Prime Video has officially ordered two seasons of Scarpetta, more than 18 months after Nicole Kidman’s name was first attached to the series adaptation of Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta novels.

Kidman will indeed headline the mystery-thriller as medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, who returns to Virginia, and her former job, amid complex personal and professional relationships — including the one with her sister, Dorothy, to be played by recent Emmy winner Jamie Lee Curtis.

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Additional cast members include Oscar winner Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) as Dorothy’s daughter, Lucy Farinelli-Watson; Bobby Cannavale (Boardwalk Empire) as former detective Pete Marino; Simon Baker (The Mentalist) as FBI profiler Benton Wesley; Rosy McEwen (The Alienist) as Past Kay Scarpetta; and, fittingly, Jake Cannavale — Bobby’s real-life son — as Past Pete Marino.

Additionally, in recurring roles, you have Sosie Bacon (Mare of Easttown) as reporter Abby Turnball, Amanda Righetti (The Mentalist) as Past Dorothy, Janet Montgomery (New Amsterdam) as Lucy’s wife Janet, Stephanie Faracy (Nobody Wants This) as Kay’s inherited assistant Maggie, and Mike Vogel (Under the Dome) as city attorney Bill Boltz.

Both Kidman and Curtis (whose Comet Pictures back in 2021 secured rights to the Kay Scarpetta novels) will also be EPs on the series, while Liz Sarnoff (Barry) will serve as writer/showrunner.

“I’m beyond excited that this is finally happening. This will be great fun for all, and I’m grateful for the immense talent that the show is drawing,” Cornwell said in a statement. “I’ve always been a huge fan of Jamie Lee Curtis and Nicole Kidman. Their wanting to do this is humbling and simply awesome. Working with the brilliant Liz Sarnoff is amazing. Blumhouse and Prime Video are a dream. This has been worth waiting for, and I’m so looking forward to the show.”

Cornwell’s tagliatella bolognese-loving Scarpetta character was first introduced in 1990’s Postmortem, and has appeared in more than 20 novels since then — most recently, Unnatural Death: A Scarpetta Novel (which hit shelves in November 2023).

As recently as 2009, Angelina Jolie was circling a big-screen franchise revolving around the Scarpetta character, while Demi Moore was briefly attached to the role back in the early 1990s. Word of Prime Video’s potential series adaptation was first reported in February 2023.

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