BOSTON — Elizabeth Banks will play acquitted Massachusetts murder defendant Karen Read in a limited series.

Banks, 51 — a Pittsfield, Massachusetts, native famous for the "Hunger Games" series of films — will also serve as an executive producer for the Amazon Prime and Warner Bros series, according to the publication Deadline, which broke the news.

Read, 45, of Mansfield, was charged with murdering her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2022. Prosecutors say that she struck O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV after a night of heavy drinking and a big fight in their troubled relationship.

She was tried twice on charges with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of an accident causing death. Her 2024 trial ended with a hung jury and was declared a mistrial.

Jurors in her second trial earlier this year acquitted her of all the indicted charges, but convicted her of a lesser charge of drunken driving, for which she was sentenced to a year of probation.

The case became a lightning rod for the region, with many latching onto the defense theory that Read was the scapegoat in a conspiracy by local prosecutors and police to cover for one of their own. Interest quickly expanded nationwide, with coverage in documentaries, national news outlets and multiple podcasts.

The limited series will be based on one of those podcasts: the Law & Crime and Wondery podcast "Karen," according to Deadline.

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