The In-Development Series Will Star 50 Shade Of Grey‘s Jamie Dornan As The Titular Character, Plus Alec Baldwin And Christian Slater In Supporting Roles.

A year ago next month, a Wondery-produced podcast about a grossly negligent Dallas-area surgeon was released to the public — and immediately engrossed listeners and critics alike with its telling of a true-crime tale that had long been at the center of Dallas headlines.

Called Dr. Death — a name it ripped from a 2016 D Magazine piece about the same subject — the podcast tells the story of Christopher Duntsch, the Plano-based surgeon who was sentenced to life in prison in 2017 after a Dallas County jury found him guilty of aggravated assault for deliberating maiming one of his patients in surgery.

That decision, for what it’s worth, was later upheld following an appeal in 2018. Also worth noting: The aggravated assault charge he was found guilty of was the only charge of six levied against Duntsch that even made it to trial.

That’s not to say, though, that Duntsch’s story isn’t more fascinating than that one charge.

As detailed in the East Dallas-recorded podcast hosted by former Dallas Morning News medical writer Laura Beil, Duntsch’s story is a tale filled with a litany of other grievances — among them medical negligence, institutional corruption, surgical mishaps and easily avoided deaths.

SEE ALSO: TALKING TO OURSELVES. // Dallas’ 11 Best Dallas-Focused Podcasts.

Now, it’s set to reach even larger audiences.

Earlier this month, Variety reported that the podcast was being developed into a television series by the NBC Universal-owned production company Universal Content Productions in association with Wondery. Executive produced by Happy! showrunner Patrick Macmanus, the series has also lined up some serious star power for its lead roles.

And, frankly, the casting of Duntsch in particular is more flattering that the disgraced doctor appears to deserve.

Per the Variety report, the show will star 50 Shade Of Grey‘s Jamie Dornan in the title role of Dr. Death‘s TV adaptation. Additionally, it will feature venerable Hollywood fixtures Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater as the pair of area doctors who team up — through conflicting means — to bring Dornan’s Duntsch down.

Following Dirty John and Homecoming, Dr. Death is the third Wondery podcast to be given the TV treatment, with the other two being produced for cable and for Amazon, respectively. No home has yet been announced for the Dr. Death series; neither, of course, has an eventual premiere date for the series, which still seems a long way off from even being filmed.

Still, here’s looking forward to watching it when it eventually does come out.

Meanwhile, apropos of nothing, have you noticed that we here at Central Track are also dipping our toes back in the podcast game? Well, we totally are! Here’s hoping I get cast as a Hemsworth when our eventual TV treatment comes!

Hey, if Duntsch can get Dornan, why not?

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