HBO Is Developing a Death Row–Set Drama With Alex Gibney and Laura Dern, Which Still Won’t Fill the Enlightened-Shaped Hole in Your Heart

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Bring back Amy Jellicoe. Photo: Gabriel Olsen/2016 Gabriel Olsen

If we all channel our most powerful positive energies, perhaps HBO’s latest development project will come to fruition. Deadline reports that Alex Gibney is working on a drama series for the network that is set on death row and would potentially star Laura Dern as a court-appointed psychiatrist who interviews inmates and then determines whether they are sane enough to be executed by the state. This would be the narrative debut for Gibney, who has previously worked on documentaries about everything from Scientology to Steve Jobs. It would also mark Dern’s return to HBO after the unjust cancellation of Enlightened, which is to say that this project sounds great, but we’ve been burned before.

HBO Developing Show With Alex Gibney, Laura Dern