KIKI

Kirsten Dunst Is Teaming Up With George Clooney on a YouTube Series That’ll See Her Get “Diabolical”

On Becoming a God in Central Florida is set to star Dunst as a water park employee gone bad.


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Juergen Teller for W magazine

Just a month after giving birth to her first child with her fiancé, Jesse Plemons, Kirsten Dunst is not messing around with getting back to work. On Wednesday, Deadline reported that she’s confirmed to both star in and executive-produce the dark comedy series On Becoming a God in Central Florida, which YouTube Premium, in its latest move to make its way into the TV game, has already snatched up, ordering a first season consisting of 10 hour-long episodes.

The series’ title serves as a pretty apt summary of its plot; set in the early ‘90s, it takes place in an area near Orlando that’s home to both a water park and one of its minimum-wage employees, Krystal Gill. Before long, though, Gill, who’s, naturally, played by Dunst, switches gears and embarks on a mission to climb the ranks of a cultish multibillion-dollar pyramid scheme called Founders American Merchandise—an Amway-like multilevel marketing company that apparently hasn’t been too kind to her family in the past.

The passion project of the TV development executive Suzanne Patmore Gibbs, On Becoming a God started out in the hands of AMC, as was announced at the start of the year—which would turn out to be three months before her death. Now that it’s been passed on to YouTube, it’ll be released at some point in 2019. Other cast members have yet to be revealed, but we do know that at least behind the scenes, George Clooney is already attached to the project, teaming up with Dunst as an executive producer. (They’ll also be working with Clooney’s collaborator Grant Heslov, with whom he runs Smokehouse Pictures, one of the production companies behind, for example, Ocean’s 8.)

No matter who joins her on set, it doesn’t seem like Dunst will need much help in keeping things entertaining onscreen. Patmore Gibbs previously characterized Krystal Gill as “a truly delicious, sometimes diabolical…dirt-poor, very fierce young woman who is relentless in her pursuit of the American dream”—a role all the more intriguing since Patmore Gibbs has been adamant from the start that it’s one Dunst was “born to slay.”

Incidentally, the announcement comes at a time when YouTube is attempting to legitimize its premium services with audiences beyond video-crazed teens. Just last week Susanne Daniels, YouTube’s head of original programming, told Variety that she wants “to win some Emmys.” A prestige TV series with Dunst in the lead certainly seems like a good start.

Related: Kirsten Dunst Will Not Lose Weight for a Movie, Even for Sofia Coppola

Kirsten Dunst: Summer Pleasures

Kirsten Dunst wears Louis Vuitton top, Harry Winston platinum and diamond earrings.

Photography by Juergen Teller. Styled by Felicia Garcia-Rivera.

Chloé bikini, $389, The Webster, Miami Beach. Harry Winston platinum and diamond earrings, and platinum and diamond necklace.

Photography by Juergen Teller. Styled by Felicia Garcia-Rivera.

Michael Kors dress. Harry Winston platinum and diamond earrings. Beauty note: Lips pop with Tarte Lipsurgence Power Pigment in True Love.

Photography by Juergen Teller. Styled by Felicia Garcia-Rivera.

Louis Vuitton dress, Harry Winston platinum and diamond earrings.

Photography by Juergen Teller. Styled by Felicia Garcia-Rivera.

Michael Kors dress and belt, Louis Vuitton sandals.

Photography by Juergen Teller. Styled by Felicia Garcia-Rivera. Hair by Adir Abergel for Starworks Artists; makeup by Dick Page for Shiseido; manicure by Tracey Sutter for Babor Cosmetics at Cloutier Remix. Managing director: Georg Rulffes. Photography assistants: Maxim Kelly, Jeremy Fortin. Fashion assistant: Kristina Koelle. Production by Lisa Grezo at GE Projects.
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