Roberts, Penn drama Gaslit greenlit at Starz

Julia Roberts in Amazon series Homecoming

Lionsgate-owned US cablenet Starz has picked up Gaslit, an anthology series about the Watergate scandal that stars Julia Roberts and Sean Penn.

From showrunner Robbie Pickering and adapted from the first season of Slate’s podcast Slow Burn, Gaslit tells the untold true story of Martha Mitchell (Roberts), the wife of former US attorney general John N Mitchell (Penn), and her role in exposing the Watergate scandal.

Gaslit is set to start production this spring and will be produced by Universal Studio Group’s UCP for Starz. Matt Ross is directing and exec producing with Pickering.

Also exec producing are Sam Esmail (Mr Robot), via his overall deal with UCP, and Chad Hamilton under their production banner Esmail Corp. Roberts will exec produce through her prodco Red Om Films alongside co-exec producers Lisa Gillan and Marisa Yeres Gill.

Anonymous Content and Slate’s Gabriel Roth and Josh Levin will also exec produce, while Leon Nayfakh, who created the podcast, will consult on the project.

Gaslit is written by Pickering, Amelia Gray, Alberto Roldán, Anayat Fakhraie, Uzoamaka Maduka and Sofya Levitsky-Weitz.

It will air on Starz in the US and Canada, and on streaming platform StarzPlay across Europe, Latin America and Japan.

“I’m so happy to have the opportunity to share the heartbreaking, fascinating story of Martha Mitchell with the world,” said Pickering. “Martha was the first and loudest voice to speak out against the bumbling criminality of a crooked presidential administration and she was one of the most complicated public martyrs of the era.”