Anne Hathaway Headlines True-Crime Drama Fear Not, Coming to Paramount+
Anne Hathaway is an actor whose dramatic chops have long been well-established. Whether she’s playing the wife of a gay man in “Brokeback Mountain” or a recovering drug addict in “Rachel Getting Married” (for which she received an Oscar nod), Hathaway is not a performer liable to disappoint critics or audiences. “Fear Not,” a forthcoming TV series, should provide her with a uniquely challenging job: a role in a true-crime story that is powerfully concerned with the humanity of a truly depraved individual.
Hathaway Stars as Serial Murderer’s Hostage
In “Fear Not,” which is a Paramount+ show slated for release in 2027, Hathaway will portray Margaret Mayfield Palm, who was, in a manner of speaking, the final victim of the serial murderer Stephen Morin (1951-1985). Morin was responsible for the murders of at least four young women (he was investigated for a total of 48 violent murder cases throughout the continental United States) between 1969 and 1981. Four years later, he was executed via lethal injection in the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville. During his time in prison, he converted to Christianity, and he used his last words to implore God to forgive those who executed him.
This is not the true story of an evil person’s redemption per se so much as his complexity, and the same should be true of “Fear Not.” In 1981, Palm was a 30-year-old resident of San Antonio whom Morin (who was high on amphetamines) kidnapped by forcing her into her own vehicle at gunpoint. He was already a murder suspect in multiple states, and he feared that law enforcement was on the cusp of apprehending him.
In 2023, Palm recounted this terrifying experience to Vanity Fair. Initially, Morin’s manner was vicious, life-threatening, and sadistic. However, after her initial terror, Palm felt herself seized by an abrupt religious conviction, which compelled her to pray for him and to attempt to verbally exorcise his evil. This seemed to have some kind of softening effect on him, and they’d spend the next eight hours having “deep, confessional” discussions, stopping at drive-throughs and 7-Elevens for beverages, and listening to his favorite song, “Ride Like the Wind,” of which she happened to have a tape in her SUV.
The police immediately apprehended Morin in Austin when he got out of Palm’s vehicle at a Greyhound bus station. However, despite the trauma of what she survived, this wasn’t the end of the story between her and him. He began writing and calling her from prison; ultimately, she visited him approximately 15 times and attended his execution. “I became friends with a serial killer,” she candidly told Vanity Fair in the 2023 interview, which marked the first time she ever spoke publicly about her interactions with him: over the decades, she’d rejected the offers of authors and Hollywood figures looking to adapt her story.
A Series About Which Little Else Is Known
Of course, this interview will serve as the basis for “Fear Not,” which is being produced by the television studio arm of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The executive producers of “Fear Not” include Vanity Fair Studios and Hathaway herself. “Fear Not” will be directed by Bathsheba “Bash” Doran, a playwright and television screenwriter previously known for co-writing the Netflix historical action drama “Outlaw King” and the Channel 4 miniseries drama “Traitors.”
Jane Wiseman, the head of originals for Paramount+, has expressed (via The Hollywood Reporter on January 15) great respect for “Fear Not’s” star: “At Paramount+, we are always looking for stories that captivate and entertain our audience, and this series will do exactly that. By grounding this chilling true story in the lived experience of our protagonist, Anne is bringing a level of nuance and gravity to the screen that only a performer of her caliber can. We are thrilled to collaborate with Anne, Bash and the rest of this illustrious team and we can’t wait for viewers to see what is sure to be an enthralling limited series.”
At this time, we don’t know who will portray Morin, nor any of the other figures in the story of “Fear Not.” Its release date is also unknown beyond the year 2027.
