Perhaps the Lehigh Valley’s most notorious killer is getting the Netflix treatment.
Given society’s true crime obsession, it’s less surprising that Charles Cullen is the subject of a film and more surprising that it took this long. “The Good Nurse,” sharing a title with the 2013 book on which it’s based, is scheduled for release sometime in 2022, as announced on Thursday in a string of tweets from Netflix about its original movie slate for the year. A release date has not yet been announced by the streaming titan.
The film will star Eddie Redmayne as Cullen, a nurse who admitted to killing 29 patients at Lehigh Valley and New Jersey hospitals over three decades. Redmayne is best known for his roles in “Les Misérables,” “The Theory of Everything” and 2020 Netflix film “The Trial of the Chicago 7.″
Academy Award-nominated actress Jessica Chastain, known for “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Interstellar” and “Molly’s Game,” is set to star alongside Redmayne, presumably as Amy Loughren, another nurse who assisted in the pursuit and arrest of Cullen. While there isn’t a lot of detail available about the film, based on the announcement tweet from Netflix, it seems that the film’s main perspective might be from the viewpoint of Chastain’s character.
The film is directed by Danish writer-director Tobias Lindholm, best known for helming the 2012 critically acclaimed Danish film “A Hijacking,” and the screenplay was penned by Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who picked up an Oscar nomination in 2020 for her script for “1917.”
The Charles Graeber book on which the film is adapted from is a study of Cullen, a New Jersey man who is estimated to be connected to many more than his 29 admitted killings. His spree took him across New Jersey — from his first known killings in Livingston to hospital jobs in Phillipsburg, Flemington, Morristown and Somerset, where he was eventually caught — and the Lehigh Valley — with stops at Allentown’s Liberty Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and Lehigh Valley Hospital, Easton Hospital and St. Luke’s in Fountain Hill.
Cullen was sentenced in 2006 and is serving 11 consecutive life sentences in New Jersey, and was sentenced with six more life sentences in Pennsylvania. He is not eligible for parole until 2403.
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Connor Lagore may be reached at clagore@njadvancemedia.com.
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