Elisabeth Moss could’ve just chased an Oscar after Mad Men turned her into a household name, but instead she’s embraced genre, playing odd, challenging roles in genre films both mainstream (The Invisible Man, Us) and under-the-radar (Her Smell, Shirley), all while keeping Handmaid’s Tale afloat. That doesn’t appear to changing anytime soon, either, as the actress has signed on to play Texas housewife Candy Montgomery, who in 1980 killed a friend, Betty Gore, with an axe.
Former Mad Men writer Robin Veith is developing the series with Nick Antosca, the Channel Zero creator with whom she worked on Hulu’s true crime series The Act. Moss will also serve as an executive producer. The team is currently shopping it around to networks, though we’re confident they won’t have trouble finding a buyer.
“I have been wanting to play an anti-heroine for a while now, and have been trying to work with Robin again after Mad Men for even longer, so when she asked me if I wanted to play a housewife from Texas who, some would say, got away with murder, I simply said, ‘Where do I sign?’” Moss said in a statement.
Wherever she signed, we’re sure she did it in blood.
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Pictured her holding an axe, immediately imagined that she’d be amazing in a remake of Misery. Not that such a thing needs to exist, but…
Damn you’re right!
Barbara Hershey played a lightly fictionalized version of the character in the TV movie “A Killing in a Small Town.”
Either Barbara Hershey or Elisabeth Moss could axe murder me anytime! … Wait, what
I prefer being “lightly” fictionalized to being “thinly” fictionalized.
They changed Barbara Hershey’s character’s name to “Candy Morrison.” She won an Emmy for it too
Give me a little fictionalization on the top but leave the sides long.
She deserved it! The Emmy I mean, not the ax murder victim.
I think she deserved both! Barbara Hershey is super-talented
Was hoping for a remake of ‘So I Married an Axe Murderer’ so this is kinda disappointing.
I would pay good money to see Elizabeth Moss standing up at an open mic night and doing some bad beat poetry.
Whoa…man
I’m not sure what it says about me that I’m not entirely sure how old my nieces and nephew are, but I can recite all of Charlie MacKenzie’s poetry in “SIMAAM” by heart.
Well, age is a relative concept. But film lasts 4evah. Also, thank you for reminding me of this scene. I’m posting the Alcatraz scene here,too. Cuz, I…want to?
Ain’t no shame in reminding the world of Phil Hartman’s greatness.
This might be the only Mike Myers film that still ‘holds up’. Phil Hartman’s cameo is one of the best performances he ever gave. EDIT: Also, I love Amanda Plummer, and she’s magnificent in this movie.
For sure on all 3 of those points:)
I was chaperoning a high school trip a couple years back, and I brought my copy on a whim—it may have been the only non R-rated comedy I owned at the time. There are certainly some bits that have aged, but it was a big hit with the kids, and it’s still very funny.
I just posted this exact same thing! 😀 😀 😀
“but she’s never murdered anyone, let alone with an axe! where is our representation, hollywood?”, shouts the world’s axe-murderers, to no avail.
Nick Antosca deserves the world. Good.Also, this is a great fucking story.
I miss Channel Zero.
Wow, there are two of us?
Betty Gore? That’s some nice victim/crime synergy right there.
I love how “Elizabeth Moss really freaks out” is becoming it’s own genre of film.
She’s got them crazy eyes, she does! Like saucers they are!!
Great, now I need to see her and Nic Cage do a movie together where they spend 2-hours trying to out-Nic-Cage each other.Not lying, I would plunk money down to see that.
But did she consult other axe murderers before accepting the role?
I think it’s funny that we have a specific term for someone who murders people with an axe (“axe murderer”) but not for other types of murderers (“gun murderer,” “rake murderer,” “withering put-down murderer”).
I like to think it’s like there was a 1500s version of CSI and one of the bad guys was THE Axe Murderer but then they just ran out of implements so there were two and then three but the classification remained. “Another Buffalo Bill, huh?” This summer: 2 BUFFALO 2 BILL2
maybe its like an honors degree…anyone can get just a B.A.
A Bachelor of Axe-murderin’?
So I Didn’t Marry an Axe Murderer
Axe has a hard K sound and hard K sounds are funny. So does Rake, but there aren’t any famous rake murderers while Axes have Lizzie Borden as the cover girl on the calendar.
not even similar implements get it. no hatchet murderer, knife murderer, saw murderer…
Gun murderers have a name, Betty White.Say it several times fast, you’ll get it.
Oh, I definitely get it. But, uh, you should say it out loud just so that everyone else can get it too.
Weird, but true: a guy I worked with at my last job was an axe-murderer. Apparently he found out a guy was raping his 14-year-old nephew, so he chopped the guy into pieces (ALIVE!) and finished his sentence for second- or third-degree murder. Which was weird knowing that he was an axe-murderer; nice guy, gay and in his late-60’s / early-70’s. Certainly didn’t fit the archetype of “axe-murderer.”
She did, Fred Armisen is the fellow’s name.
“the actress has signed on to play Texas housewife Candy Montgomery, who in 1980 killed a friend, Betty Gore, with an axe.”
Cool, I’m down with that.“developing the series with Nick Antosca, the Channel Zero creator”
Never mind.
Yes… “play.”
what is that from?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_of_the_Lake
I would have expected AV to talk about the Depp Heard trial.
All this news about who is going to be in what project seems like speculative fiction from a different timeline. It could be a year or more before production resumes in Hollywood.
Was hoping for a Lizzie Borden biopic but this looks good, too.
Kristen Stewart did one a while back, I think?
Christina Ricci played Lizzie Borden in a Lifetime movie & gloriously insane spinoff series, “Lizzie Borden Chronicles” (with Clea DuVall as her sister)
I saw it. It was pretty crazy-in-a-good way, but not what you’d call a “biopic”.I’m still hoping someone turns Cherie Priest’s “Lizzie Borden vs. the Cthulhu mythos” into a series. Could be the thing that saves Quibi! (Kidding, nothing can save Quibi.)
Their hasn’t been a decent Lizzie Borden movie since the time of Elizabeth Montgomery, sadly.
That series, or was it a movie, with Chloe Svegny was dope. And so was the Christina Ricci one.
I was hoping this was going to be a So I married an axe murderer remake.
I mean, I feel like describing an axe-murderer as an “anti-hero[ine]” is really stretching that already-questionably used term to breaking point, but okay.
I bet she doesn’t murder a single axe in that movie.