Films, News, Television, Women Directors, Women Writers

Christina Ricci & Judith Light to Star in Lifetime Film About First Undercover Female Journalist

Ricci in “Z: The Beginning of Everything”

Another project about Nellie Bly is in the works. Back in September we wrote that “Megan Leavey” actress Kate Mara is toplining a series in development about Bly, who is considered the first-ever female undercover journalist. Now Deadline reports that Lifetime has given the green light to a psychological thriller based on the trailblazer. Christina Ricci (“Monster”) and Judith Life (“Transparent”) are starring in the film, which is written by Helen Childress (“Reality Bites”). Karen Moncrieff (“The Keeping Hours”) is directing.

Scheduled for a 2018 premiere on Lifetime, the project’s working title is “Nellie Bly.” Ricci will portray Bly, an investigative reporter who’s “on a mission to expose the deplorable conditions and mistreatment of patients at the notorious Women’s Lunatic Asylum, and feigns mental illness in order to be institutionalized to report from the inside,” the source details. “The movie is an account of actual events surrounding Nellie’s stay beginning after she has undergone treatment, leaving her with no recollection of how she came to the asylum or her real identity.” Light will play the Head Nurse at the Asylum.

Bly’s account of her time at the Asylum, “Ten Days in a Mad-House,” was released as a book in 1887. The book served as inspiration for the 2015 film “10 Days in a Madhouse,” which saw Caroline Barry (“Fake the Joy”) playing Bly.

Ricci is among “Nellie Bly’s” executive producers. She recently portrayed Zelda Fitzgerald in Amazon’s “Z: The Beginning of Everything” and Lizzie Borden in Lifetime’s “The Lizzie Borden Chronicles.”

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