How To Get Away With Murder star Viola Davis is about to step behind the camera for her next project…yet another ABC drama, about another powerful female lawyer.
Davis and her husband/producing partner Julius Tennon have teamed with producer Debra Martin Chase (Sparkle) for Conviction, a legal drama inspired by the life of Kym Worthy, the chief prosecutor of Wayne County, MI, known as the toughest woman in Detroit, reports Deadline.com.
Worthy became the second African-American to serve as a county prosecutor in Michigan when she was appointed as chief prosecutor of Wayne County in 2004. She is known for a number of high-profile cases, like filing charges against Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and her campaign to clear a massive backlog of 11,000 unprocessed rape test kits in Detroit.
The script is being written by Jason Wilborn (Damages), with Jeff Melvoin (Army Wives) on board as showrunner.
Davis and Tennon are executive producing through their JuVee Productions, and Martin Chase through her Martin Chase Prods. ABC Studios, where Martin Chase Prods. has an overall deal, is the studio.
Also executive producing are Kim Swann and Leah Keith who brought Worthy’s story to Hollywood, and Melvoin, while Wilborn serves as co-executive producer and Martin Chase Prods.’ Charles Pugliese as producer. Worthy will serve as a consultant.
In addition to Conviction, Swann is developing several projects with Worthy as her producing partner. Keith is adapting her novel A Rented Life into a feature. At ABC and ABC Studios, Martin Chase Produs. also has a limited series in development based on the book Catherine The Great by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Massie with a script by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Michael Cristofer (“Gia”).
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