Julia Roberts to Star in True-Crime Story of Framed PTA Mom
Last month, the Los Angeles Times began a six-part story on Kelli Peters, a school volunteer and PTA member in the community of Irvine, California who became the unwitting subject of a bizarre conspiracy to ruin her family’s name. A few days later, Peters’ tell-all book, I’ll Get You! Drugs, Lies, and the Terrorizing of a PTA Mom, hit bookshelves across the country. It wasn’t long before the film rights to the book were shopped around in Hollywood, and now it appears a major star is interested in playing the role of Peters herself.
According to Deadline, Julia Roberts is attached to the project as both producer and star, and multiple bids have been submitted for the film rights. This wouldn’t be the first time that Roberts played a small-town mom caught in the middle of an outlandish conspiracy; if the untitled Kelli Peters project is a hit, it could bring with it some of the accolades that Roberts received in her Academy Award-winning turn as environmental activist Erin Brockovich.
The popularity of true-crime stories — ranging from HBO’s groundbreaking series The Jinx to the popularity of Netflix’s Making a Murderer — has set the stage for stories like this to get turned around pretty quickly. It truly is a fascinating story; the web version of the Los Angeles Times expose linked above includes several media components, including the original 911 call where someone claimed to see several bags of drugs just sitting in the back seat of Peters’ car. If true-crime is your thing, be sure to check out the Los Angeles Times feature and get yourself excited for this upcoming movie.