ID uses AI likeness of Aileen Wuornos for new true-crime series
The three-part Investigation Discovery series recreates Wuornos through VFX and AI, with actor Morag Peacock performing the role.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
3 min read
Aileen Wuornos, the convicted killer whose story inspired Charlize Theron’s Oscar-winning turn in Monster, is being digitally recreated for a new Investigation Discovery true-crime series.
Deadline reported that the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned cable network has ordered Unmasking A Monster: Aileen Wuornos, a three-part docuseries using AI-assisted digital replication and visual effects to depict Wuornos, who was executed in 2002.
The series comes from Arrow Media, the Fremantle-owned production company that previously made Aileen Wuornos: Mind of a Monster for ID. It is set to air September 30 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET/PT, according to Deadline.
How the digital Wuornos was made
Arrow Media worked with VFX artists to build a likeness of Wuornos from archival photographs and video, Deadline reported. Actor Morag Peacock performed as Wuornos, and the team spent three years filming material used to help the effects system produce the final digital version.
Kyran Speirs, Arrow Media’s head of post-production, said the process began with a model built from archive footage and images showing Wuornos from multiple angles.
“That model acts as a three-dimensional mask that, with the help of AI, we can layer on top of our actress’ performance,” Speirs told Deadline.
According to Deadline, the finished effect placed a digital layer of Wuornos over Peacock’s voice, movement and performance. Peacock compared the process to “putting on a costume” and said, “It’s almost as if she’s been brought back to life.”
The producers said they made sure people whose likenesses were digitally recreated were told and gave consent, Deadline reported. The team also informed families of surviving victims and others connected to the case.
The case behind the series
Wuornos killed seven men in Central Florida in 1989 and 1990, according to Deadline. She said the men had raped her or tried to rape her. Deadline reported that Wuornos had worked as a prostitute.
She was arrested in January 1991 in Volusia County, Florida. In 1992, she was convicted of murdering Richard Mallory. During that same year, she pleaded no contest in the killings of five other men and received six death sentences, according to Deadline. She was executed by lethal injection in October 2002.
ID says the series combines first-person material connected to Wuornos, people who knew her and investigators on the case with accounts drawn from verified transcripts, documented evidence and recorded firsthand testimony, according to Deadline.
Jason Sarlanis, president of ID, said documentary filmmaking has changed as technology has advanced, and said the network is using new tools to give audiences another way into real cases.
“For Unmasking A Monster: Aileen Wuornos, we collaborated closely with law enforcement, members of Aileen’s inner circle, a talented cast of actors, and a team of innovative VFX artists to recreate pivotal moments from the case,” Sarlanis told Deadline. He said each scene was based on legal transcripts and firsthand testimony.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.