Christina Ricci and Judith Light have signed on to star in a Lifetime movie based on the work of Nellie Bly. Bly was the pen name of Elizabeth Cochran Seaman, a groundbreaking 19th century journalist who sought to expose the mistreatment of patients at the notorious Women’s Lunatic Asylum in New York.
Ricci will star as Bly, who feigned mental illness in order to be institutionalized at the asylum and report on the conditions from the inside. Light will play Matron Grady, the head nurse who tortured her patients into submission. Josh Bowman will play Dr. Josiah.
The movie will deliver a fictionalized account of actual events surrounding Nellie’s stay beginning after Nellie has undergone treatment, leaving her with no recollection of how she came to the asylum or her real identity. Production has already begun with the movie eyed for a 2018 debut on Lifetime. This marks Ricci’s return to the network following her performance in the limited series “The Lizzie Borden Chronicles” and the prequel movie, “Lizzie Borden Took An Axe.”
Nellie Bly is executive Produced by Howard Braunstein of Howard Braunstein Films, along with Ricci via Grey Team Productions. Michael Tive, David Sigal, Peter Werner and Jonathan Baruch also serve as executive producers with Karen Moncrieff directing from a screenplay by Helen Childress.
