Julia Garner’s next TV project is officially coming into focus, and Craig Gillespie had already quietly pointed us in its direction.
Variety reports that Garner is set to star in Apple TV’s “Guilty Creatures,” a true-crime limited series based on Mikita Brottman’s book “Guilty Creatures: Sex, God, and Murder in Tallahassee, Florida.” The project centers on the murder of Mike Williams, a 31-year-old Tallahassee man who disappeared during a duck-hunting trip on Lake Seminole in December 2000, and the long, strange investigation that eventually led back to his wife, Denise Williams, and his best friend, Brian Winchester.
If that sounds familiar, it is because Gillespie essentially teased the project to The Playlist last month. While speaking to us about “Supergirl,” the “I, Tonya,” “Cruella,” and “Dumb Money” filmmaker said his immediate future was likely in television, including a not-yet-officially-announced Apple project with Garner. Gillespie did not name the series at the time, but production listings pointed to Apple Studios and Tomorrow Studios’ “Guilty Creatures.”
Earlier production listings had Garner expected to play Denise Williams, with Sarah DeLappe listed as head writer and Stuart Zicherman as showrunner and director. The series is expected to film in Atlanta, Georgia, between September 2026 and January 2027.
The real-life case is one of those true-crime stories built on alligators that had eaten his body, which grew more bizarre over time. After Mike Williams vanished in 2000, many believed he had drowned and that his body had been eaten by alligators. Years later, Winchester confessed to killing Williams, and Denise Williams was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2019.
For Garner, “Guilty Creatures” adds another major limited-series role to a slate that already includes Netflix’s “The Altruists,” where she plays former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison opposite Anthony Boyle as Sam Bankman-Fried. Garner, of course, broke out on Netflix’s “Ozark,” winning three Emmys for playing Ruth Langmore, and later starred as Anna Delvey in “Inventing Anna.”
Gillespie, meanwhile, has been busy lining up post-“Supergirl” projects. In the same interview, he also teased another TV project with Tony McNamara, the Oscar-nominated writer behind “The Favourite” and “Poor Things,” as well as a separate project with Glen Powell. “Cruella 2” is also still possible, with Gillespie telling us the sequel remains “on the agenda.”
Apple TV has not announced a premiere date for “Guilty Creatures.”
