Starz is in early development on a drama series titled “The Venery of Samantha Bird,” Variety has learned exclusively.

The project hails from writer and executive producer Anna Moriarty. Should the show get ordered to series, it would mark her first TV writing credit. She is repped by A3 Artists Agency.

Jessica Rhoades will also executive produce, with Jessica Yu attached to executive produce and direct. Lionsgate Television and Paramount Television Studios will produce.

Starz declined to comment.

In the series, lonely artist Samantha Bird is visiting family in New England one fateful Thanksgiving when she re-meets her childhood sweetheart and falls headlong into a seemingly perfect storybook romance. But underneath the fever dream lurks a more unsettling interpretation of this affair. With the psychological underpinnings of a modern gothic romance, the show is described as a haunting portrayal of the doubled-edged sword of addictive love and the echoing repercussions one relationship has on a small New England town.

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Rhoades was previously head of television for Blumhouse Productions. She launched her own production company, Pacesetter Productions, in 2018. She is currently an executive producer on the Amazon series “Utopia” as well as the HBO Max series “Station Eleven.” Her previous producing credits include Season 2 of the drama series “Dirty John” starring Amanda Peet and Christian Slater, “Sharp Objects” at HBO, and both “The Affair” at Showtime and “The Village” at NBC.

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She is repped by UTA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.

Yu previously won an Academy Award for the documentary short “Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien.” She is also a two-time Emmy nominee for her work on the shows “Fosse/Verdon” and “In the Realms of the Unreal.” Her other directing credits include “Ratched,” “Hollywood,” “13 Reasons Why,” “Billions,” “American Crime,” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”

She is repped by Paradigm and Anonymous Content.

(Pictured: Anna Moriarty, left; Jessica Rhoades, right) 

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