Apple Orders 10 Episode Series ARE YOU SLEEPING Starring Octavia Spencer

According to Variety, Apple has given a series pickup to the Octavia Spencer starrer "Are You Sleeping," from Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine and Chernin Entertainment/Endeavor Content.

The drama will examine the nation's long-held obsession with true-crime stories and the recent boom in podcasts dedicated to probing unsolved and disputed cases. Nichelle Tramble Spellman ("The Good Wife") created the show and will serve as showrunner. Apple has ordered 10 episodes.

"Are You Sleeping" is based on the novel of the same name by Kathleen Barber, which questions the consequences when crime-solving plays out on a public stage.

Spencer is a three-time Oscar nominee who won the supporting actress trophy for 2011's "The Help."

Spencer, Spellman, Hello Sunshine's Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter, Chernin Entertainment's Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping and Kristen Campo are exec producers of "Are You Sleeping." There's no word yet from Apple on a premiere date.

Octavia recently wrapped production on Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water, in which she stars alongside Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Sally Hopkins. The film is an otherworldly love story set against the backdrop of the Cold War. She also recently finished filming Small Town Crime with John Hawkes and Anthony Anderson, a film about an alcoholic ex-cop who, through an act of self-redemption, becomes hell-bent on bringing a killer to justice.

Last year, Octavia reprised her role as Johanna in Allegiant, the third installment of Lionsgate's The Divergent Series franchise. She also voiced the character of Mrs. Otterton in the Disney animated film Zootopia, one of fastest worldwide grossing films of the year. Last fall, she co-starred alongside Elisabeth Moss and Boyd Holbrook in The Free World, a drama focusing on a recently released former convict who becomes involved with a married woman with an abusive husband that premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival; the drama Fathers and Daughters with Quvenzhane Wallis, Diane Kruger, Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, and Aaron Paul; and The Great Gilly Hopkins, the adaptation of Katherine Peterson's young adult Newberry Award winning novel. Octavia also reprised her role as Opal in Mark Waters' Bad Santa 2, along with Billy Bob Thornton and Kathy Bates.

Among her many other professional achievements, Octavia has co-authored an interactive mystery series for children called Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective. The first title in the series, Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective: The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit was published by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing in Fall 2013 and the second book, Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective: Sweetest Heist in History, is currently in bookstores.

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