Nicole Kidman steps into the morgue with ‘Scarpetta’

Kay Scarpetta is finally making her long-awaited leap from page to screen.

Prime Video has released the first trailer and striking new key art for Scarpetta, a prestige crime drama inspired by Patricia Cornwell’s blockbuster book series.

The adaptation, which has been decades in the making, launches globally on 11 March, streaming exclusively in more than 240 countries and territories.

With more than 120 million copies of Cornwell’s novels sold worldwide since the character’s debut in 1990, the arrival of Dr. Kay Scarpetta as a television lead feels less like a debut and more like a cultural moment.

Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman takes on the role of the brilliant and relentless chief medical examiner, bringing to life a character known for her razor-sharp intellect and fierce commitment to the dead who can no longer speak for themselves.

In this reimagined take, Scarpetta is drawn into a chilling serial murder investigation — one that threatens to reopen a pivotal case from nearly three decades earlier and cast doubt on the legacy she’s built.

The series, crafted for television by Emmy-nominated writer and showrunner Liz Sarnoff (Barry, Lost), unfolds across two distinct timelines. Viewers will follow Scarpetta’s early years in the late 1990s as well as her present-day return to her hometown, where she reclaims her former post while navigating old rivalries and deeply personal wounds. At the center of that tension is her complicated relationship with her sister, Dorothy Farinelli, played by fellow Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis.

The ensemble surrounding Kidman and Curtis is equally stacked. Bobby Cannavale portrays Detective Pete Marino, Simon Baker steps in as FBI profiler Benton Wesley, and Ariana DeBose plays Lucy Farinelli Watson, Scarpetta’s whip-smart niece with a gift for technology. Flashbacks feature Rosy McEwen, Amanda Righetti, Jake Cannavale, and Hunter Parrish as younger versions of the central characters, expanding the emotional and narrative scope.

Kidman and Curtis both serve as executive producers alongside author Patricia Cornwell. Jason Blum and his Blumhouse Television team join Amazon MGM Studios in producing, signaling a blend of psychological intensity and high-end drama. David Gordon Green directs five episodes and also executive produces.