HBO Max, Kelley explore Love & Death

David E Kelley’s Big Little Lies for HBO

HBO Max has ordered a limited series based on a true crime story written by Big Little Lies scribe David E Kelley and starring Elizabeth Olsen, with Nicole Kidman on board as executive producer.

Love & Death follows “two church-going couples, both enjoying small-town family life in Texas, until somebody picks up an axe,” HBO Max said in a statement.

It is inspired by the book Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion & Death in the Suburbs and a collection of articles from Texas Monthly (Love & Death In Silicon Prairie, Part I & II).

The book, which is based on the story of Texas housewife Candy Montgomery’s murder of Betty Gore in 1980, was adapted into the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning TV movie A Killing in a Small Town in 1990 by CBS.

Olsen (WandaVision, Marvel Franchise, Martha Marcy May Marlene) will play Montgomery in the HBO Max limited series.

Directed by Lesli Linka Glatter, it will be produced by Lionsgate Television and executive produced by Kelley through David E Kelley Productions.

Kidman and Per Saari, meanwhile, will exec produce through Blossom Films alongside other exec producers Linka Glatter; Scott Brown and Megan Creydt through Texas Monthly; Matthew Tinker; and Michael Klick and Helen Verno.

Linka Glatter’s directing credits include episodes of Homeland, Mad Men, The Walking Dead, West Wing and The Newsroom, as well as the pilots for Gilmore Girls and Pretty Little Liars.

Multiple Emmy-winning writer Kelley is known for critically acclaimed, award-winning series including the hit HBO series The Undoing and Big Little Lies, along with Big Sky, Goliath, Boston Legal, The Practice, Picket Fences and Ally McBeal.

Sarah Aubrey, head of original content at HBO Max, said: “This is a gripping story about the frustrations and desires of two women in a small town that culminates in a terrible act of violence.”