EXCLUSIVE: Two-time Academy Award nominee Liz Garbus is set to direct and executive produce the Untitled Orphan Project that’s in the works for Hulu.
The ABC Signature drama will star Ellen Pompeo and is inspired by the true story of a Midwestern couple who adopts who they believe is an 8-year-old girl with a rare form of dwarfism. But as they begin to raise her alongside their three biological children, they slowly start to believe she may not be who she says she is.
The real-life story has drawn parallels to the 2009 horror movie Orphan.
The plan is to produce an eight-episode limited series. Pompeo will executive produce through her production banner Calamity Jane with Laura Holstein. The project was created and written by Katie Robbins (The Affair). Erin Levy will serve as showrunner on the series and executive produce alongside Robbins.
Garbus’ first episode of television was for the Season Four finale of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, which earned her an Emmy nomination for Best Directing. She’s also a two-time Academy-Award nominee in the documentary feature category for her films What Happened, Miss Simone? and The Farm: Angola, USA. She also directed and executive produced the Netflix documentary Harry and Meghan.
Garbus recently directed episodes of the Apple+ series City on Fire and the Showtime series Yellowjackets. She is repped by UTA and Victoria Cook at Frankfurt, Kurnit, Klein & Selz.
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