“We are tremendously excited to work with the brilliant auteur Steve Conrad, whose singularity of vision lies central to all his work as a storyteller,” said Francesca Orsi, executive vp HBO Programming and head of HBO drama series and films. “With David Harbour and Jason Bateman at series center, two masterful titans in their own right, we couldn’t be more emboldened by the journey ahead and look forward to sharing this special, emotionally provocative piece with the world come time.”
HBO describes DTF St. Louis as a dark comedy “about a love triangle between three adults experiencing middle-age malaise, that leads to one of them ending up dead.”
The series has been in development for more than two years. The original title was My Dentist's Murder Trial and based on a 2017 story by James Lasdun in the New Yorker magazine. At that time, Harbor and Pedro Pascal were attached to star. Pascal (who also stars in HBO's The Last of Us) has since withdrawn from the project, which has also developed into an original story not based on the magazine piece. However, Lasdun remains executive producer of the series.
Conrad is producing the series with Bateman and Michael Costigan of Aggregate Films; Harbour; Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and Steve Tisch of Escape Artists, and Molly Allen, Bruce Terris, Kristina Wenson of Bravo Axolotl, Lasdun and MGM Television.
Bateman will soon be seen in the Netflix feature Carry-On and will star opposite Jude Law in a drama series titled Black Rabbit for the streamer in 2025. Harbor has Marvel's Thunderbolts and the final season of Stranger Things slated for next year.
