Clifton Collins Jr. is stepping into the investigation…
The 54-year-old Mexican American actor has been cast in Paramount+‘s limited series JonBenét Ramsey (w/t), which hails from MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios.
Collins is among a roster of new cast additions that includes Chris Bauer, Rory Cochrane and Angus K. Caldwell.
Collins Jr. plays Detective Trujillo, a Boulder Colorado police detective who does his job but without exhibiting much initiative. Bauer plays Boulder Police Chief Tom Koby, whose department is the first on the scene after JonBenét was reported kidnapped. Cochrane portrays John Eller, the Detective Division Commander of the Boulder Police Department. Caldwell is Burke Ramsey, the eldest child of John and Patsy Ramsey.
Others in the cast include Melissa McCarthy, Clive Owen, Shea Whigham, Will Patton, Emily Mitchell, Garrett Hedlund, Alison Pill and Owen Teague.
Mitchell has landed the title role of JonBenét, a girl from an affluent family and child beauty queen, with McCarthy and Owen set to portray her parents, Patsy and John.
Executive-produced by Richard LaGravenese ,who serves as showrunner,
JonBenét Ramsey explores the tragic unsolved murder of the six-year-old beauty queen of the same name. The show follows the Ramsey family, before and after the tragedy, as they go through the painful loss of a child, while facing intense public scrutiny caused by a media frenzy that caused this case to captivate an entire nation. At the heart of the series is the story of Patsy and John Ramsey – exploring the unbreakable partnership of these two complex people – as husband and wife, as mother and father – who had committed themselves and their children to building the narrative of a perfect, privileged life, only to have it destroyed one Christmas night in 1996.
Harrison Query and Tommy Wallach sold the project to MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios and serve as writers alongside LaGravenese.
Winning Sundance’s U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for his leading turn in Clint Bentley’s drama Jockey, which he also exec produced, Collins Jr. has recently been seen in films including The Bricklayer, Prime Video’s hit rom-com Red, White & Royal Blue and Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, among others.
His recent TV credits include Westworld, Veronica Mars, and Ballers.
Up next, he’ll be seen in Apple’s series The Last Frontier, Ari Aster’s contemporary A24 Western Eddington, and Bentley’s Train Dreams.