American TV channel Lifetime has cleared production for a four-hour investigative documentary series about the victims of disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Variety reported citing an announcement by the channel at the Television Critics Association press tour on Saturday.
The docuseries, titled “Surviving Jeffrey Epstein”, will reportedly feature the stories of women abused by the billionaire, following the channel’s earlier project “Surviving R. Kelly” that detailed the accounts of the American singer’s victims. This new series will reportedly be directed by Anne Sundberg and Ricki Stern and are set for release next summer.
The criminal case detailing Epstein’s alleged sexual assaults and trafficking of minors drew worldwide attention in 2019 due to his association with a number of powerful figures, including the Clintons, Trumps, and Britain’s Prince Andrew. The financier was found dead in his cell in August while awaiting trial, which was later ruled a suicide, but many continued questioning this conclusion. News about this series has now sparked a new round of debates on social media.
Epstein, who was already convicted on sex-related charges in 2008, died while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking of underage girls, some as young as 14.