Renee Zellweger digs into ‘Dateline’ for next big character

‘”I couldn’t believe it,” Zellweger says during a Zoom conference. “It was an experience of escalating absurdities. It just felt like it would be something really interesting to explore further.”

Interested in adapting their docu-series into a film, “Dateline’s” producers talked with studios who might be able to pull it off. Blumhouse was eager and, says Executive Producer Liz Cole, “we just kept coming back to ‘Pam’ because it’s such a rich story. I don’t think I imagined, in my wildest dreams, that we would have Renee Zellweger starring as Pam.”

Zellweger, though, wanted to try television because it’s quick, “and you have to think fast on your feet.”

Pam Hupp, meanwhile, looks nothing like Zellweger. Convicted of murdering a man who she said was trying to kill her, Hupp also was charged with murdering Betsy Faria, the case that kicks off the miniseries, “The Thing About Pam.”

Leaning into the twists and turns of Hupp’s life, the six-part “Fargo”-like drama shows how she befriended Faria at work and became her confidante and sounding board. When Faria was found dead at home, Hupp was the last person authorities suspected.