Candy: Elisabeth Moss to star in true-crime story of notorious Texas axe killer

‘I have been wanting to play an anti-heroine for a while now,’ actor says

Elisabeth Moss (Rex)

Elisabeth Moss has signed on for a new true-crime series titled Candy, which will be based on the story of notorious killer Candy Montgomery.

The series – currently unattached to any network or streaming service – tells the story of Montgomery and her victim, Betty Gore.

Moss will play Candy, a Texas housewife in 1980 who “seemingly had it all — loving husband with a good job, a daughter and a son, a nice house in the brand new suburbs — so why did she kill her friend from church with an axe?” the official description reads.

Variety reports that the series has brought on several members of the team behind popular Hulu true-crime miniseries The Act, including the television writer Robin Veith, with whom Moss previously worked on the AMC drama Mad Men.

Moss said: “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 want to play a housewife from Texas who, some would say, got away with murder, I simply said, ‘Where do I sign?’”

Moss will also serve as an executive producer on the series.

The Handmaid’s Tale actor is known for her strong female leads, most recently in the sci-fi horror film The Invisible Man, and starring as Shirley Jackson in Josephine Decker's biopic of the famous author.

In 1990, Stephen Gyllenhaal directed a slightly fictionalised CBS TV movie based on the Candy Montgomery events titled Killing in a Small Town.