Laura Dern will play Miami Herald journalist Julie K. Brown in an upcoming series based on her reporting that brought the late Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes to light.
The Sony Pictures Television limited series will be based on Brown’s 2021 book “Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story,” which chronicled her years-long journey to track down victims of the disgraced billionaire financier, Variety reported Monday. Her investigation was triggered by President Trump’s choice of Alexander Acosta, the U.S. attorney who had signed off on a sweetheart plea deal for Epstein in 2008, as U.S. Secretary of Labor in 2017.
That quest, which put her in touch with dozens of victims, generated an award-winning series in the Miami Herald that set off a chain reaction culminating in Epstein’s 2019 arrest, Acosta’s resignation and, two years later, the sentencing of Epstein associate and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. Since then, public pressure has forced the Trump administration’s Department of Justice to release millions of documents pertaining to Epstein’s case.
“Some personal news,” Brown deadpanned on social media Monday alongside a link to an article about the deal.
Dern, an Oscar and Emmy winner, will also be one of several executive producers, as will Brown. This will be the first scripted series about the Epstein case, a departure from the documentaries and documentary series already made about the sex trafficker, who died in jail a month after his 2019 arrest while awaiting trial.
Sony promises “an explosive account of an investigative reporter exposing the secret plea deal between Epstein and federal prosecutors,” as the company describes it. “Drawing from Brown’s experience as a groundbreaking reporter for the Miami Herald, the book and the limited series follow her relentless years-long investigation that identified 80 victims, persuaded key survivors to go on the record, and led to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s arrests.”
Sharon Hoffman, whose credits include “Mrs. America” and “House of Cards,” is adapting the book for the screen, Variety said.