Renee Zellweger to make broadcast TV debut as killer

Oscar winner Renee Zellweger is to make her broadcast TV debut as the star of a true-crime drama, based on the 2011 murder of Betsy Faria.

The Judy star will headline and executive produce The Thing About Pam for NBC.

The stranger-than-fiction story, which featured on U.S. news show Dateline, has been adapted for TV by House of Lies writer Jessika Borsiczky.

Faria’s husband, Russ, was convicted of his wife’s murder but maintained he did not kill her. The ruling against him was later overturned. Betsy’s murder remains unsolved, but the case exposed a diabolical scheme involving Pam Hupp – the role Zellweger will play on TV – who is currently serving a life sentence for the 2016 murder of Louis Gumpenberger.

Investigators believe Hupp murdered Gumpenberger as part of a plot to implicate Russ Faria in the murder of his wife.

“We see this opportunity to fuel viewers’ appetites for strong and compelling stories,” executive producer Jason Blum said in a statement. “This opportunity to build a powerful, scripted franchise and work with the incomparable Renee Zellweger in her first starring role on broadcast TV, with a writer as gifted as Jessika Borsiczky and adapting material from the treasure troves of Dateline in partnership with our friends at NBC, is unparalleled,” he added.