A Friend Of The Family: Anna Paquin, Jake Lacy, Colin Hanks And Lio Tipton To Star In True-Crime Limited Series At Peacock

Deadline is exclusively reporting that Peacock have given a straight-to-series order for A Friend Of The Family, a true-crime limited series that will star Anna Paquin, Jake Lacy, Colin Hanks and Lio Tipton.

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The series is based on the harrowing true story of the Broberg family, whose daughter Jan was kidnapped multiple times over a period of years by a charismatic, obsessed family ‘friend’. The Brobergs, devoted to their faith, family, and community, who utterly unprepared for the sophisticated tactics their neighbour used to exploit their vulnerabilities, drive them apart, and turn their daughter against them. This is the story of how their lives were permanently altered – and how they survived.

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Anna Paquin (whose credits include Flack and American Underdog) will be playing the role of Mary Ann Broberg. The mother of three daughters, her life has felt safe, happy and rewarding until recently. She has realized too late that she may have missed warning signs and made a terrible mistake by becoming close to her charismatic neighbour Robert Berchtold — and trusting him around her oldest daughter, Jan.

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Jake Lacy (whose credits include The White Lotus and Being The Ricardos) will be playing the role of Robert “B” Berchtold, a charming local businessman who appears to be a genial Mormon father and husband. An expert in manipulation, he puts everyone around him at ease as he carefully plots the abduction of Mary Ann’s daughter.

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Colin Hanks (whose credits include The Offer and American Crime Story: Impeachment) will be playing the role of Bob Broberg, Mary Ann’s husband and Jan’s father. Bob is big-hearted, kind, and everyone’s best friend, the very model of a suburban patriarch. As his family gets closer to neighbour Robert Berchtold, Bob begins to fear that something is amiss.

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Lio Tipton (whose credits include Why Women Kill and The Edge of Sleep) will be playing the role of Gail Berchtold, Robert Berchtold’s wife and the mother of a large family. Her husband suffers from mood swings and this has led him to act erratically. Gail’s concerns about her husband may keep her on edge, but she never could have expected what her husband would eventually do.

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Lisa Katz, President of Scripted Content at NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, released a statement saying:

Nick Antosca has created a compelling series in A Friend of the Family that explores one family’s unimaginable experience with great insight and sensitivity. We can’t wait to see Anna Paquin, Jake Lacy, Colin Hanks, and Lio Tipton bring these complex characters to life, and we know Peacock audiences will connect with this incredible story of deception and resilience.

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UCP President, Beatrice Springborn, also released a statement saying:

Alongside Jan and Mary Ann Broberg, Nick and Alex have brought humanity to a delicate and haunting story. As he demonstrated with ‘The Act,’ and now with this series, Nick treats real people not as caricatures but as complex and layered. We’re proud to bring that quality and care in storytelling to Peacock.

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Nick Antosca will be writing and serving as showrunner for the limited series, as well as serving as executive producer under his Eat The Cat banner. Eliza Hittman is attached to direct and executive produce multiple episodes, including the pilot. Also executive producing alongside Antosca and Hittman is Eat The Cat’s Alex Hedlund. Jan Broberg and Mary Ann Broberg will produce, while Sky Borgman will serve as consulting producer for Top Knot Films.

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