With American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson now officially in the books, what tabloid-friendly ’90s murder tale will consume our lives next? Before you exclaim, “THE SLAUGHTER OF CRYSTAL PEPSI!” you might want to see what NBC is teeing up as your potential next obsession.
The Peacock Network and Dick Wolf (the TV figure, not the porno werewolf) are developing Law & Order: True Crime with the Menéndez Brothers serving as the subject of the eight-episode anthology series. If you’re not familiar with Lyle and Erik Menéndez or just know them as a recurring punchline on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, they were media sensations in the ’90s when they went on trial for the 1989 murder of their parents in Beverly Hills. Since even true crime comes with spoiler warnings these days, this 1990 Vanity Fair article should give a bit of background without explaining how the entire thing plays out.
“We’ve been talking with Dick about how to create an event series coming out of the Law & Order ripped-from-the-headlines brand. This case captured the public’s attention like nothing before it as it examined taboo issues such as patricide and matricide in gruesome detail, all against a backdrop of privilege and wealth,”
YEAH! RIP THOSE HEADLINES! RIP ‘EM SUPER GOOD!
Wolf, who will executive produce the project, has wrung a lot of spin-offs from the original series. In addition to Law & Order, we’ve been given such flavors as Special Victims Unit, Criminal Intent, Trial By Jury, and Law & Order: L.A., plus a handful for foreign adaptations. We’ll have to wait and see if Law & Order: True Crime will muster some SVU longevity or be banished to cancellation like Trial By Jury.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
