“Author, Speaker, Survivor” are words her website proudly displays on the landing page. In 2002, at age 14, Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her home in Utah, gaining mass media attention after surviving captivity for nine months and returning home. She is a testament to the strength and courage survivors endure from overcoming hardship, and now Smart has struck a deal with A&E and Lifetime to have her harrowing kidnapping ordeal told to audiences nationwide.
Deadline previously reported on Lifetime’s March upfront, telling of Smart’s new film biopic with Lifetime, I Am Elizabeth Smart, which she will produce and narrate, alongside A&E’s two-part biographical non-fiction special Elizabeth Smart: Autobiography. Both projects are slated for a release later this year, marking the 15th anniversary of Smart’s kidnapping.
According to Deadline, in the two-part biography special, Smart reveals previously untold details from enduring nine months in captivity, outlining the abduction, featuring interviews with family members, law enforcement and eyewitnesses who observed her case from a world view that shocked the nation. Smart, 29, now a wife and mother of two, will discuss how she overcame the ordeal, her recovery, and responsibility to advocate on behalf of victims.
I Am Elizabeth Smart will feature Alana Boden as the 14-year-old Utah girl, Elizabeth Smart, and Skreet Ulrich (Riverdale) as Brian David Mitchell, Smart’s captor, as well as Deirdre Lovejoy (The Blacklist) co-starring as Mitchell’s co-conspirator, Wanda Barzee.
Elizabeth Smart gained mass media attention in 2002 when she was abducted from her Utah home at age 14. She was held captive for nine months by Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Ileen Barzee, who were indicted for her kidnapping. The widely reported abduction of Smart spawned Bringing Elizabeth Home, a novel penned by her family, as well as her family relative’s book In Plain Sight: The Startling Truth Behind the Elizabeth Smart Investigation. A film made for television was released in 2003, titled The Elizabeth Smart Story.
Asylum Entertainment will produce Elizabeth Smart: Autobiography with Marwar Junction Productions. Steve Michaels, Jonathan Koch, David Michaels, Allison Berkley and Joseph Freed will join Elaine Frontain Bryant, Amy Savitsky and Brad Abramson from A&E to executive produce the special.