Oscar-winning actress Geena Davis to play Dorothea Puente in HBO drama series
Geena Davis wasn’t the first big name that Barbara Holmes heard could play the serial killer who once owned her house. Davis isn’t the last name Holmes has heard, either.
Deadline reported Tuesday that Davis, who won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for the 1988 film “The Accidental Tourist,” will play Puente in a true crime drama series that is under development.
Holmes and her husband Tom Williams have owned a turn-of-the 20th century Victorian at 1426 F St. for roughly 15 years. The address was once a boarding house run by Dorothea Puente before Sacramento Police dug up bodies of several former tenants in 1988. Puente, who preyed on elderly and vulnerable people, was convicted of killing three people and died in prison in 2011.
Holmes, who is approached regularly by people interested in her home’s history, remembered when Davis was in talks several years ago to play Puente in a feature film. Meryl Streep was also in talks on that film, Holmes added. There’s a well-known name in talks on another film, though Holmes said she couldn’t say who it was.
“There’s always an interest,” Holmes said. “And we’re aware of that.”
How series could compare to other Puente projects
Limited details have emerged so far about the prospective HBO series. Deadline noted that it “is inspired by the real-life story of … California’s most notorious female serial killer.”
The article said that Joshua Michael Stern, the showrunner for the series, also wrote it, basing it off a story by Jane Whitney and Michael Rosenbaum. John Cabrera, who was the lead detective for the Sacramento Police Department’s investigation of Puente and is now retired, said he’d spoken “several times” with Rosenbaum.
“He wanted to just get clarification on some things and get my reaction on a couple of other things, on how things were done, and what she was like,” Cabrera said, who added that he’d enjoyed interacting with Rosenbaum and that he was “really good.”
Asked if he was confident Davis could carry off playing Puente, Cabrera noted that Davis was several inches taller than Puente. “In Hollywood, they change things,” Cabrera said. “They can change things and nobody ever knows.”
Such was the case with “Dorothea,” a low-budget horror film that debuted last year. While Puente, who was in her mid-late 50s at the time of her crimes, made herself look far older than she was, the lead actress from that film, Susan Priver, looked glamorous in her performance.
That film’s director Chad Ferrin told The Bee last year that Sharon Stone was at one point in talks to play Puente.
Hopes for the upcoming series
It is unclear when the HBO series on Puente will debut, though people like Cabrera are optimistic about what might come.
“I hope they do make a series of it,” Cabrera said. “I’d be thrilled.”
Holmes has accepted that she has a tie to history. Because her house was considered historic by the city of Sacramento even before Puente’s horrors came to light, it is difficult to tear the house down.
Holmes and her husband have been accommodating over the years to various entertainment personnel or writers interested in the house, even appearing on-screen. They are participating in a Preservation Sacramento home tour of historic properties later this year.
“It’s just a home that we live in and we know that it … has an exceptional interest to others,” Holmes said.
The HBO series is being produced by Bristol Circle Entertainment, which Deadline reported is headed by Jeff Frost, who is the former president of Sony Pictures Television Studios. Frost is also one of the executive producers of Apple TV series “Pluribus,” whose executive producers include “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan.
Reached by phone on Thursday morning, Priver had no advice for Davis on how to play Puente.
“They’re going to have a lot of money, and they’re going to have a good time doing it,” Priver said. “But it all depends on the script.”
This story was originally published July 9, 2026 at 11:45 AM.
