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Elle Fanning To Play Michelle Carter In New Hulu Show About Texting Suicide Case
Michelle Carter was released from prison earlier this year after she encouraged her boyfriend to die by suicide through text messages.
Hulu has announced it will release a new series based on the controversial story of the teenager who was convicted of manslaughter after encouraging her boyfriend to kill himself.
Actress Elle Fanning, most recently seen in Hulu's "The Great," will play Michelle Carter in the new series "The Girl From Plainville," based primarily on the Esquire article of the same name by Jesse Barron, Hulu announced over the weekend.
"The limited series will explore Carter’s relationship with Conrad Roy III and the events that led to his death and, later, her controversial conviction of involuntary manslaughter," Hulu stated.
Carter, 23, was sentenced to serve 15 months after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the 2014 death of her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III. A judge determined that Carter, who was 17 at the time, was culpable in 18-year-old Roy's suicide after she encouraged him to die by suicide in text messages, as well as telling him in a phone call to get back in his carbon monoxide-filled truck.
She was released in January on good behavior after appealing her conviction all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to take up her case. Carter's lawyers had previously contended her involuntary manslaughter conviction violated her First Amendment rights.
The creative team behind the series includes Golden Globe-nominated screenwriter Liz Hannah and Patrick Macmanus, who is also the writer behind the upcoming Peacock series "Dr. Death."
Barron will be a consulting producer alongside documentarian Erin Lee Carr, who directed the HBO documentary "I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter."
"The Girl From Plainville" is a production of Universal Content Productions, a division of Universal Studio Group. A spokesperson for UCP told Oxygen.com it had no additional information to provide about the series other than what Hulu has announced at this time.
UCP is also currently producing another true crime series, this one starring Elisabeth Moss and focusing on the true story of a Texas housewife accused in a brutal suburban murder. That show — tentatively titled “Candy” — is not currently tied to a network or streaming service.
UCP and Oxygen share a parent company in NBCUniversal.
