Jason Clarke (Oppenheimer, Winning Time) has signed on to portray real-life convicted killer Alex Murdaugh in Hulu‘s Untitled Murdaugh Murders limited series opposite Patricia Arquette, who plays the family’s matriarch, Maggie.
From co-creator and showrunner Michael D. Fuller and Erin Lee Carr, the true-crime drama follows Alex Murdaugh, who on the surface seems to have it all: wealth, status, and unchecked privilege in rural Hampton County, South Carolina, where four generations of Murdaughs have built a sprawling legal dynasty.
But when a deadly accident shines a harsh spotlight on Alex, his wife Maggie, and their sons Buster and Paul, the almighty Murdaugh facade begins to crumble leading Alex to take increasingly desperate measures to preserve the family name and protect his dark secrets.
In 2023, Alex Murdaugh was convicted of killing his wife and son Paul which took place two years prior. He was sentenced to two life sentences to run consecutively without the chance of parole. He was denied a new trial in January following his appeal request.
Years before the murders, a schoolmate of Buster Murdaugh, Stephen Smith, was killed in what was believed at the time to be a hit-and-run accident.
In light of new evidence collected in the Murdaugh family slayings, Smith’s case was reopened by police and re-classified as murder. Buster Murdaugh has denied any involvement in Smith’s demise. No arrests have been made in the Smith case but it is often linked to coverage of the Murdaugh family.
As chronicled in the Netflix series Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, at 19 years old, Paul Murdaugh was at the wheel of a boat while drunk, when a girl in his friend group was flung from the speeding vehicle, and her body was found eight days later, after she perished in the accident.
The family seemed to always be connected to the deaths of those around them, and the murders of Paul and his mother Maggie were the final event that led to a conviction which finally stuck.
The series is based on Maggie and Alex Murdaugh’s stranger-than-fiction family drama, an account drawing from countless hours of reporting by Mandy Matney – journalist and creator of the popular “Murdaugh Murders Podcast.”
Nick Antosca (A Friend of the Family, The Act) and Alex Hedlund for Eat the Cat will executive produce alongside Matney.
via: Deadline
