Laura Dern and Adam McKay Are Making Jeffrey Epstein Drama

Spread love

The first scripted series on the Epstein case is here. It stars an Oscar winner, is produced by the director of The Big Short, and is based on the journalism that changed everything.

By TRH ENTERTAINMENT DESK

Mumbai, March 31, 2026 — Sony Pictures Television is shopping a limited series about the investigation that cracked open the Jeffrey Epstein case, with Oscar and Emmy winner Laura Dern set to star and filmmaker Adam McKay executive producing, The Hollywood Reporter reports.

Dern will play Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown, whose years-long investigation identified 80 victims, exposed a secret non-prosecution deal between Epstein and federal prosecutors, and ultimately led to Epstein’s arrest on federal sex trafficking charges and the prosecution of his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

The series is adapted from Brown’s book Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story. Sharon Hoffman (Mrs. America) is writing the script and will co-showrun alongside Eileen Myers (The Night Agent). McKay and Kevin Messick executive produce through Hyperobject Industries, alongside Dern and Brown herself.

Sony describes the project as: “An explosive account of an investigative reporter exposing the secret plea deal between Epstein and federal prosecutors… [following] her relentless years-long investigation that identified 80 victims, persuaded key survivors to go on the record, and led to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s arrests.”

Brown’s 2018 Herald reporting triggered a cascade of consequences that went well beyond the courtroom. Then-Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta resigned after her stories revealed he had, as U.S. attorney for Florida’s southern district, signed off on the 2007 non-prosecution agreement that blocked federal charges against Epstein — allowing him to plead guilty instead to lesser state charges. Her reporting also renewed calls for the Department of Justice to release its full files on Epstein and his network of associates — which included two former US presidents, a British royal, and prominent figures across business and media.

With Sony actively taking the project to buyers, the series is expected to generate significant bidding interest as the first scripted dramatisation of one of the most consequential investigative journalism stories of the past two decades.