Rebecca Cutter is turning her gaze from the fictional world of Gotham to the very real opioid epidemic in Provincetown, MA. The writer-producer of Fox’s Batman prequel “Gotham” has a new show in development at Starz, Deadline confirms. “P-Town” is about a federal Fishery Service Agent who gets drawn into Provincetown’s (aka P-Town) world of heroin-related crime and addiction.
“P-Town’s” protagonist is Jackie Quinones, “a hard-partying lesbian … who uses her gun and badge to seduce tourist chicks,” the source summarizes. “She’s none-too-enthusiastically putting in her time until she can draw a federal pension — but everything changes when she discovers a body in Cape Cod Bay, and finds herself at the center of the Cape’s gruesome heroin epidemic.”
Cutter will write and executive produce the series. Gary Lennon (“Power”) will serve as showrunner.
In addition to presenting an interesting, flawed female lead and being an outlet for an up-and-coming female creative voice, “P-Town” will also spotlight the the especially-grave opioid situation in Massachusetts. Deaths connected to opioid addiction have surged in the U.S. but Massachusetts has been disproportionately affected. In 2014 alone the state saw upwards of 1,200 heroin OD deaths, Deadline notes.
Cutter’s previous credits include “The Mentalist,” “Gotham” spinoff web series “Gotham Stories,” and the 2012 feature “Besties.”