Showtime has acquired the dark comedy “On Becoming a God in Central Florida” which stars Kirsten Dunst, who will also executive produce with George Clooney.
The project has gone back and forth between cable TV and streaming. It was initially set up at AMC, before moving over to YouTube Premium, which placed a 10-episode order last year.
Dunst stars as Krystal Gill, an Orlando water park employee who schemes her way to the top of a pyramid scheme called Founders American Merchandise, which previously bankrupted her. The series will take place in the early 1990s. Along with Dunst, the series stars Théodore Pellerin, Beth Ditto, Mel Rodriguez and Ted Levine.
Here is the logline for the show, courtesy of Showtime:
Set in a small Orlando-adjacent town in 1992, “On Becoming a God in Central Florida” follows Krystal Stubbs (Dunst), a minimum-wage water park employee who lies, schemes and cons her way up the ranks of Founders American Merchandise (FAM) — the cultish, flag-waving, multibillion-dollar pyramid scheme that drove her to ruin in the first place, run by the powerful Obie Garbeau II (Levine). Determined to make a better life for herself, Krystal dives deep into FAM and develops a tangled relationship with FAM’s most loyal and fanatical follower Cody (Pellerin), until her business begins to affect those closest to her, including Ernie (Rodriguez), her affable water park boss, and his FAM-skeptic wife Bets (Ditto). Additional casting includes Usman Ally, Julie Benz, Melissa De Sousa, John Earl Jelks, Sharon Lawrence, Josh Fadem, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Golden Globe and Emmy winner Alexander Skarsgård and Mary Steenburgen..
Clooney is producing along with Grant Heslov under their Smokehouse Pictures banner. Robert Funke and Matt Lutsky are the c0-writers and will executive produce. The show is produced by TriStar Television, with Esta Spalding serving as showrunner and Charlie McDowell directing.
You can watch a trailer for the show in the video above.
“On Becoming a God in Central Florida” will debut on Showtime on Aug. 25 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.