Octavia Spencer To Lead True-Crime Series About Oregon Highway Murders For Max & ID

Though it has the wonky title of “DAHMER – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” it shouldn’t have been forgotten that the mega-popular Netflix series is the first season of what is expected to become Ryan Murphy’s latest anthology series, “Monster.” Well, since ‘DAHMER’ took off in such a big way, Netflix has already announced the next season of “Monster,” err “Monsters.”  READ MORE: John Stamos Says ‘Dahmer’ Creator Ryan Murphy Once Pitched Him A Show About Male Hookers Inspired By ‘Charlie’s Angels’ According to Netflix, the next season of “Monster” is actually called, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.” As the title suggests, the new entry in the anthology series is following the highly publicized Menendez double murders, when Lyle and Erik Menendez killed their parents.

and  -- are chronicling the lives in the small Texas town of Wylie and the events leading up to her death at the hands of accused axe murderer Candy Montgomery.Not since the 1990 TV movie,, has Montgomery's story been explored this in-depth onscreen, with Jessica Biel portraying her in the five-part, which is now streaming on Hulu, while Elizabeth Olsen takes over the role in, which unfolds over seven episodes on HBO Max.While the two projects have naturally drawn comparisons, there's more to each series, with Olsen explaining to ET that «stories that are interesting deserve to be told and every way you're going to tell it.»And just like the crime — and everything surrounding Betty's death, including the other real-life characters and scandals involved — Candy's story is far more complicated than one woman taking an axe to another. Married to Pat Montgomery and a mother of two children, Candy was a seemingly typical, 30-year-old housewife living in Collin County, Texas, who became close friends with Betty, a fellow housewife and mother who was also a middle school teacher. According to , it was the regularly attended service at the First United Methodist Church of Lucas «that first brought Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore together, and it was the church that led them to their times of closeness and, eventually, to their mutual hatred and Betty’s brutal death.»The church is also where Candy, who had grown bored with Pat, decided to have an affair with Betty’s husband, Allan Gore. More specifically, the moment that pushed her over the edge «happened on the church volleyball court, on a late-summer day in 1978,» when the two collided during a play. After that, Candy set her sights on Allan.

Lise Pedersen Lucrecia Martel, whose films include “La Ciénaga,” “The Holy Girl” and “The Headless Woman,” has been celebrated as guest of honor at the 54th edition of international documentary film festival Visions du Réel, where organizers had to switch to a larger venue to accommodate the large, enthusiastic audience attending her masterclass. During the three-hour event on Tuesday, the acclaimed Argentinian filmmaker and leading figure of the New Argentine Cinema delved into her body of work and spoke about her upcoming hybrid project, “Chocobar,” her first foray into feature-length non-fiction. “I am learning as I’m doing, that’s why it’s taking so long,” she quipped, with characteristic self-deprecation. “I am currently on version four of the edit,” she explained of her doc, which focuses on the real-life murder of indigenous leader Javier Chocobar. The film explores the subject of land ownership and indigenous struggles in Latin America, asking what has changed over the past five centuries.

EXCLUSIVE: Taye Diggs is set to star in the true crime film series Love & Murder: Atlanta Playboy from Mona Scott-Young of Monami Productions and Eric Tomosunas of Swirl Films. It is set to debut on BET+ later this year.

The detective who brought Scots serial killer Peter Tobin to justice will host a talk on murderers in Kilmarnock later this year.

EXCLUSIVE: Convicting a Murderer, the docuseries response to Netflix’s popular true crime series Making a Murderer, has found a streaming home with DailyWire+, the SVOD platform of right-wing media company The Daily Wire.

HBOMax’s “Love & Death,” the new true crime drama from prolific writer David E.

EXCLUSIVE: IHeartPodcasts and Glass Podcasts are strengthening their ties by signing a true-crime slate deal and unveiling a second season of hit series Betrayal.

Netflix after his photo was allegedly used without permission in a true-crime documentary.According to reports, Taylor Hazlewood is seeking more than £804,000 ($1million) in damages after the streaming platform used his image in a documentary about a convicted murderer. As reported by Insider, his photograph was used in the 2023 true-crime show The Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker – which focused on Caleb ‘Kai’ McGillvary, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 2019 (via The Washington Post).The photograph used was taken from Hazlewood’s Instagram page and showed him holding a hatchet.

Charlie Sheen is reuniting with Chuck Lorre.The star has joined Lorre's upcoming new Max series, How to Be a Bookie, according to multiplereports. Sheen will recur in the series, which is led by comedian Sebastian Maniscalco.Warner Bros.

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar winner Juliette Binoche (The English Patient), Oscar nominee and BAFTA winner Tom Courtenay (Doctor Zhivago), Emmy winner Anna Calder-Marshall (Wuthering Heights) and Bridgerton breakout Florence Hunt are currently filming under-the-radar feature drama Queen At Sea in the UK.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Keshet International has scored a pair of high profile deals on its true crime documentary series, “My Name is Reeva: I Was Murdered by Oscar Pistorius.” Directed by Warren Batchelor (“204: Getting Away With Murder”), the three-part docu series tells the intimate story of Reeva Steenkamp who was allegedly murdered by her then-boyfriend Oscar Pistorius on Valentine’s Day in 2013.  “My Name is Reeva” has been sold by Keshet International to Channel 4 in the U.K. and SBS in Australia. Channel 4 has licensed the linear and SVOD rights for its streaming service All 4, while SBS has picked up broadcast and streaming rights and will premiere it on April 17. Discussions are ongoing with other potential broadcast partners.  

Channel 4 and SBS have kicked off their Mip TVs by acquiring a three-part true crime doc on the murder of model Reeva Steenkamp.

For actors Evan Peters and Niecy Nash-Betts, as well as director Paris Barclay, the critical mission with Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story was to shift the focus of the narrative around the serial killer away from Dahmer himself and toward his many victims, as well as the systemic racism and institutional failures of the police that allowed him to get away with his crimes.

Issa Lopez is the new showrunner of “True Detective: Night Country.” The beloved anthology series is back for another round, this time, with Jodie Foster and Kali Reis in the lead roles.Matthew McConaughey reveals he and Woody Harrelson could be brothersKristen Stewart talks about the time when Nicole Kidman gave her walkie talkies for ChristmasA post shared by Issa López (@issitalopez)“True Detective: Night Country” is set in Alaska. Foster plays detective Liz Danvers, investigating a case where six men vanished without leaving a trace. The series is produced by Academy Award winner Barry Jenkins and by Foster herself.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor German film and TV distribution and licensing company Telepool, which is owned by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook, is moving into lead producing movies and series, its CEO Yoko Higuchi-Zitzmann tells Variety exclusively in her first interview since joining the company in January. Munich-based Telepool is celebrating its 60th anniversary on Wednesday, and although it has a barrel-load of experience in selling, distributing, licensing, financing and co-producing movies and series, this shift into initiating and lead producing represents a significant step for the company. It also forms part of Westbrook’s broader strategy for international expansion, which – in part – lay behind its acquisition of Telepool in December 2021.

Gaumont UK Options TM Logan’s ‘The Mother’

Joe Otterson TV Reporter A “Harry Potter” TV series is officially moving forward at HBO Max. The announcement was made during Warner Bros. Discovery’s presentation to press and investors on April 12, during which it was announced that HBO Max and Discovery+ are officially being combined into a new service dubbed simply Max. News of a show based on the megahit J.K. Rowling book series first leaked on April 3, but details have now been confirmed. Each season of the show will be based on one of the books in the franchise, with Warner Bros. Discovery describing the show as a “decade-long series.” It will feature an entirely new cast from the films.

As Warner Bros. Discovery rebrands HBO Max to Max, the studio has updates and teasers for all sorts of shows that will premiere on the streamer soon.

Janet Jackson is interested in turning her life into a TV show, according a new report.