Fargo’s Kirsten Dunst is heading back to television for AMC’s dark comedy series ON BECOMING A GOD IN CENTRAL FLORIDA. The project comes from George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures, Sony’s TriStar Television, and AMC Studios, with The Lobster helmer Yorgos Lanthimos set to direct. Dunst will star in the series and executive produce.
The series is in early development and is based on a spec written by Robert Funke and Matt Lutsky, their first major credit, about one woman’s pursuit of the American Dream. Set in the 1990s, Krystal Gill (Dunst) is a widowed Orlando water park employee who schemes and cons her way up the Founders American Merchandise, the multibillion-dollar pyramid scheme that drove her to ruin in the first place.
Funke, Lutsky, and Lanthimos will produce alongside Dunst. Sarah Shepard will oversee for Smokehouse.
For Smokehouse, this will be their second television credit, following TNT’s Memphis Beat. They have more film credits, starting with 2008’s Leatherheads and their most recent being last year’s Money Monster.
On the small screen, Dunst most recently appeared in Fargo, for which she was nominated for an Emmy and Golden Globe and won a Critics Choice Award. She is best known for her appearance in the first Spider-Man trilogy and films like Marie Antoinette and Bring It On. She can currently be seen in Hidden Figures.
Lanthimos has been receiving praise for his indie dark comedy The Lobster, which came out in the first half of 2016. He recently wrapped on The Killing of a Sacred Deer, which he both directed and wrote and is also in preproduction on directing The Favourite.
Dunst is repped by UTA and Management 360.
Lanthimos is repped by CAA, Sayle Screen in the U.K., and LBI Entertainment.
Funke and Lutsky are repped by CAA.
Anya Crittenton | Associate Editor
This news was first reported by Deadline.