Production is currently underway on the upcoming Lifetime Original Movie, I AM ELIZABETH SMART, the authorized film about the harrowing kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart. Marking the 15-year anniversary of her abduction, the movie is told from her perspective and with her full participation.Skeet Ulrich (Riverdale, Jericho) has been tapped to portray Brian David Mitchell, Smart's kidnapper and captor for nine months, alongside Deirdre Lovejoy (The Blacklist, The Wire) as co-conspirator Wanda Barzee, and Alana Boden (Ride) will play Elizabeth. The film will air on Lifetime later this year as part of a cross-network event along with A&E Network's new two-part Biography nonfiction special, Elizabeth Smart: Autobiography (working title).
In June 2002, Elizabeth Ann Smart (Boden) was a naïve 14-year-old girl when she was abducted from her Salt Lake City home by a religious fanatic Brian Mitchell (Ulrich). He brought her to a hilly encampment where, with his twisted accomplice Wanda Barzee (Lovejoy), he held Elizabeth captive. She was starved, drugged, raped and subjected to bizarre religious rituals until, nine months later, she enabled her own rescue. A film about the kidnapping was rushed on the air shortly after the incident, but it shied away from the reality of what Elizabeth went through. Now, in I Am Elizabeth Smart, Elizabeth herself, as a producer and on-screen narrator, explores how she survived and confronts the truths and misconceptions about her captivity.
In the revealing two-part Biography special, Elizabeth Smart: Autobiography, Elizabeth Smart provides previously untold details of her infamous abduction and 9-month nightmare in the grasp of her bizarre and cruel captors. Now 29 years old, Elizabeth shares the perspective she's gained on the agonizing ordeal she endured at the tender age of 14. Marking the 15-year anniversary, Elizabeth, her close family, law enforcement and eyewitnesses reveal new information about the harrowing child abduction case that galvanized the attention of a nation - as well as her remarkable recovery, marriage, motherhood, and advocacy on behalf of victims.
I Am Elizabeth Smart is executive produced by Steve Michaels, Jonathan Koch and Joan Harrison of Asylum Entertainment and Allison Berkley and Joseph Freed of Marwar Junction Productions.Barbara Lieberman and Tom Patricia also executive produce the movie with Elizabeth Smart serving as producer. Sarah Walker directs from a teleplay by Tory Walker.
Elizabeth Smart: Autobiography is produced by Asylum Entertainment in association with Marwar Junction Productions. Executive producers for Asylum Entertainment are Steve Michaels and Jonathan Koch along with David Michaels and executive producers for Marwar Junction are Allison Berkley and Joseph Freed.Executive producers for A&E are Elaine Frontain Bryant, Amy Savitsky and Brad Abramson.
A+E Networks holds worldwide distribution rights for I Am Elizabeth Smart and Elizabeth Smart: Autobiography.
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