‘The Dolls’: Laura Dern and Issa Rae To Produce and Star In The HBO Limited Series!!

HBO has put in development The Dolls, a limited series with Laura Dern and Issa Rae attached attached to star and executive produce. The project hails from Dern and Jayme Lemons’ Jaywalker Pictures. Rae, who’s under a deal with HBO, also will co-write the project with Laura Kittrell and Amy Aniobi, who work with Rae on HBO’s Insecure, which has been renewed for a fourth season.

Written by Rae, Kittrell and Aniobi, The Dolls, inspired by true events, recounts the aftermath of Christmas Eve riots within two small Arkansas towns in 1983…riots which erupted over, yes,…Cabbage Patch Dolls. The limited series explores class, race, privilege and what it takes to be a “good mother.”

Rae, Dern, Lemons and Deniese Davis (Insecure) executive produce. Kittrell and Aniobi co-executive produce.

Two-time Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Dern recently wrapped production on the second season of HBO’s Big Little Lies, and is currently working on Greta Gerwig’s production of Little Women for Sony. Dern next will star opposite Allison Janney in Tate Taylor’s comedy Breaking News in Yuba County. She can recently be seen in Ed Zwick-directed Trial By Fire.

On the small screen, she was most recently seen starring in HBO’s The Tale, which earned Dern her seventh Emmy nomination, and on Big Little Lies which earned her a Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe award for her role as Renata.

Also prolific as a producer, Dern established Los Angeles-based Jaywalker Pictures production company in 2017 with her producing partner Jayme Lemons for film and television. They have a first-look TV deal with Platform One Media where they have hour-long series Mr. and Mrs. American Pie in development. Their other projects  in development are the films Candy & Mel, The Dog of the South, and a half-hour comedy from writers Arabella Anderson and Wendy West, based on Anderson’s life growing up homeless.

Rae received an Emmy nomination and two Golden Globe nominations for Best Comedy Actress for her hit show, HBO’s Insecure. Issa’s web series, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, was the recipient of the coveted Shorty Award for Best Web Show and her first book, a collection of essays, is a New York Times Bestseller. Rae made her film debut in the acclaimed drama The Hate U Give, and will also star in Universal’s Little, with Regina Hall and Marsai Martin releasing in spring 2019.