Photo by Suzanne Tenner – © 2010 Focus Features

Lisa Cholodenko is set to direct the first two episodes of The Girl from Plainville, Hulu’s upcoming series about the Michelle Carter texting-suicide case. Elle Fanning, who earned a Golden Globe nomination for her starring role in another Hulu show, The Great, will play Carter. This new series, which received a straight-to-series order back in August, comes from writer Liz Hannah, best known for penning the film The Post, and executive producer Patrick Macmanus. It is based on the Esquire article by Jesse Barron.

In July 2014, eighteen-year-old Conrad Roy III killed himself in Massachusetts.

Following his death, Carter, his girlfriend, was put on trial for her alleged role in convincing him to end his life.

She was charged with involuntary manslaughter and convicted in 2017 in large part due to the incriminating text messages in which she appears to urge him to move forward with his decision, as well as her failure to do anything to stop him from his plan or alert his family or the police. Carter’s trial was considered particularly monumental because of the possibility of setting a precedent to implicate one person in another’s suicide.

Cholodenko has tackled disturbing real-life stories recently as director of the first three episodes of Netflix’s Emmy-nominated limited series Unbelievable, which followed two detectives investigating serial rapists and their victims. Additional credits include HBO’s limited series Olive Kitteridge, which won Cholodenko an Emmy for her directing, and the Oscar-nominated film The Kids Are All Right.

Joining showrunners Hannah and Macmanus as executive producers are Fanning and Brittany Kahan Ward from Echo Lake. Barron and Erin Lee Carr, who helmed the HBO documentary I Love You, Now Die, which is also about the case, have been brought on as consulting producers.