Geena Davis to Play Serial Killer Dorothea Puente in True Crime Drama Developing at HBO

HBO is developing a true crime drama series titled “Dorothea” based on the story of ’80s serial killer Dorothea Puente.

Geena Davis has been cast in the title role and executive produces alongside showrunner Joshua Michael Stern. Michael Rosenbaum and Jeff Frost also executive produce, with Rosenbaum having pitched the project to Frost’s Bristol Circle Entertainment, which later sold it to HBO. Rosenbaum’s writing partner Jane Whitney serves as co-executive producer.

Puente — also known by the nicknames Killer Landlady and Death House Landlady — was “a Sacramento woman who ran a boarding house for the less fortunate in the 1980s, but her seemingly benevolent actions belied her sinister motives,” the official logline reads. Puente ran her operation from between 1982 and her arrest in 1988. She was eventually charged with murdering nine people, including several of her tenants. Many of her victims were poisoned and buried around the boarding house, with Puente cashing their social security checks. Because of a deadlocked jury on six of the counts, Puente was only convicted of three. In 1993, she was sentenced to life in prison, and she died at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, Calif. in 2011 at age 82.

Davis is best known for films including “Beetlejuice” (1982), “The Accidental Tourist” (1988), “Thelma & Louise” (1991) and “A League of Their Own” (1992), with “The Accidental Tourist” earning her a supporting actress Oscar. On television, her credits include roles in “Commander in Chief” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” both on ABC, and more recently, Netflix’s “The Boroughs.” Davis is also known for launching the Geena Davis Institute, which advocates for improving the representation of women in media, and the diversity-focused Bentonville Film Festival. She is repped by CAA, Untitled and Hanson, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman.

Stern’s credits include directing the Ashton Kutcher-led Steve Jobs biopic “Jobs” in 2013 and creating “Graves,” a comedy series starring Nick Nolte that ran on MGM+ (then known as Epix) for two seasons from 2016 to 2017. In 2021, he wrote an episode of “Why Women Kill” on Paramount+. Stern also wrote and directed the 2008 Kevin Coster film “Swing Vote.” He is repped by Innovative Artists Entertainment and Darren Trattner at Jackaway, Austen, Tyerman.

Rosenbaum is best known for his acting career, having played Lex Luthor in “Smallville” on the WB and later the CW in Seasons 1 through 7 from 2001 to 2008 before returning as a guest in the 10th and final season in 2011. He has appeared in multiple other superhero projects, playing Martinex in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s second and third “Guardians of the Galaxy” films in 2017 and 2023 and a Raptor guard in 2025’s “Superman,” plus voice roles in DC’s “Batman Beyond,” “Static Shock,” “Justice League,” “Teen Titans” and “DC Showcase: The Phantom Stranger.” Rosenbaum is repped by Buchwald, Platform and Yorn, Levine, Barnes, Krintzman, Rubenstein, Kohner, Endlich, Goodell and Gellman.

Whitney is repped by Buchwald.

Frost is the former president of Sony Pictures Television, who exited in 2022 to form Bristol Circle Entertainment. His company, which is now under an overall deal at Sony, produces Apple TV’s “Pluribus,” created by Vince Gilligan and starring Rhea Seehorn.