Credit: Cause
The two-time Oscar nominee could end up winning an Emmy soon. According to Deadline, Scarlett Johansson will be making the jump over to television as the actress will star in and executive produces Cause for Amazon Studios, based on the 1992 novel by John Katzenbach. This seems like a passion project for Johannson as she originally starred in the 1995 film of the same name as Paul Armstrong’s daughter (she was ten at the time); Just Cause had a stacked cast that included Sean Connery, Lawrence Fishburne, Ed Harris, Blair Underwood, and Christopher Murray. The official synopsis for the film is:
Paul Armstrong, a law professor who staunchly fights the death penalty, is lured into defending a death row inmate, Bobby Earl Ferguson, convicted of rape and murder. Ferguson is there due to a coerced confession by a snarling local sheriff. Armstrong starts to suspect that a psychotic serial killer may be the real culprit. But the deeper Armstrong gets, the more he realizes he doesn’t know who’s innocent.
Credit: Cause
Sounds great. The critics didn’t particularly think so, as the feature currently sports an abysmal 29% on rotten tomatoes. Given that this was originally a novel, a ton of material was left out to adjust to the movie format. That’s not mainly a good excuse for why the feature was terrible, though, as there’s been plenty of movies that have managed to adapt their source material to the big screen strongly; Gone Girl, Harry Potter, No Country For Old Men, and The Shawshank Redemption are some of the many examples. However, the new television show seems to be going in a different direction, as Johansson has been cast as Madison “Madi” Cowart, a reporter for a Florida newspaper who comes to believe a death row prisoner’s claims of innocence after she’s assigned to cover his final days. Amazon has picked up the show with a straight-to-series order from writer Christy Hall, who is known for her Netflix series I Am Not Okay With This and Daddio.
These Pictures, Johansson’s production company, will produce alongside Warner Bros. TV. Hall is also on board as the executive producer with Johansson, Jonathan Lia, and Keenan Flynn. These Pictures head of TV, Zara Duff, will oversee the show. Johansson has never carried an entire television show before, but the actress is no stranger to crossing over to the small screen. Like most actors, she’s done Saturday Night Live numerous times; however, she’s also had cameos in Entourage and The Client, plus Johansson’s done animated voice work for Assassin Banana and Robot Chicken. There’s no set date on when the upcoming series will be released, nor is an official production start date confirmed. No other names have been cast as of this writing.
Credit: Cause
Johansson joins a massive list of prominent name actors who decided to take a stab at television. Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Billy Bob Thornton, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ewan McGregor, Oscar Isaac, Jamie Foxx, Chris Rock, Woody Harrelson, Matthew McConaughey, Colin Farrell, and Patrick Wilson are just some of the names who have ventured into the television landscape in recent years. So can Scarlett Johansson grab her first Emmy? The actress is a highly talented performer, so if the material is strong enough, it wouldn’t be a surprise if she earned an Emmy award in the future. The series’ premise is compelling, and it should be interesting to see how much material they adapt from the novel. Hopefully, Christy Hall will be able to do a better job of adapting the source material.
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