NBC Orders ‘Law & Order: True Crime – The Menendez Brothers’

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NBC has put in an official series order in for “Law & Order: True Crime – The Menendez Brothers,” which will recreate the trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez. In 1996, the brothers were convicted of murdering their parents and were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Their conviction followed a protracted and well-publicized legal battle in which the brothers claimed they had been victims of years of abuse.

Similar to “American Crime Story” on FX, the eight-episode “Law & Order: True Crime: The Menendez Brothers” is the first season of this planned anthology series. Rene Balcer (“Law & Order: Criminal Intent”) has been tapped as writer, executive producer and show runner.

NBC put the project into development shortly after the finale of FX’s “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” which just earned 22 Emmy nominations. In addition to ABC, which is working on a third season of anthology “American Crime,” CBS is getting in the true-crime business this fall with a docuseries centered on the unsolved murder of JonBenet Ramsey.