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Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis bring Patricia Cornwell’s forensic icon to life in Prime Video’s Scarpetta

Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis bring Patricia Cornwell’s forensic icon to life in Prime Video’s Scarpetta

Prime Video has released the first official images from its hotly anticipated new drama Scarpetta, an eight-part crime thriller based on Patricia Cornwell’s internationally bestselling Kay Scarpetta novels. The series will premiere on 11th March 2026 in more than 240 countries and territories.

Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman stars as the titular forensic pathologist, Dr Kay Scarpetta – a brilliant, driven investigator with a sharp mind, steady hands, and a complicated past. Jamie Lee Curtis plays her estranged sister, Dorothy Farinelli, in what marks the first major screen adaptation of Cornwell’s iconic character, whose stories have sold over 120 million copies worldwide.

Set across two timelines, Scarpetta follows the medical examiner’s early years in the late 1990s and her present-day return to Virginia, where she’s tasked with unravelling a brutal new case that may be tied to her own history. As she digs deeper into the murder investigation, Kay must confront long-buried family rifts, resurface professional rivalries, and wrestle with the case that made – and nearly destroyed – her reputation.

The star-studded cast also includes Bobby Cannavale as Detective Pete Marino, Simon Baker as FBI profiler Benton Wesley, and Ariana DeBose as Kay’s fiercely intelligent niece, Lucy. Younger versions of the characters are portrayed by Rosy McEwen, Amanda Righetti, Jake Cannavale, and Hunter Parrish.

The series is created and showrun by Liz Sarnoff (Barry, Lost) and directed in part by David Gordon Green (The Exorcist: Believer, Halloween). Scarpetta is executive produced by Kidman and Curtis, alongside Cornwell herself, with Amazon MGM Studios and Blumhouse Television backing the production.

Promising a forensic thriller that balances psychological depth with edge-of-your-seat tension, Scarpetta reimagines a trailblazing female character for a new generation of viewers.

The editorial unit

Scarpetta is released on Prime Video on 11th March 2026.

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