Actor Taye Diggs has signed on for a new BET+ series “Love & Murder: Atlanta Playboy” in which he plays Atlanta Black tech executive Lance Herndon, who was murdered in 1996.
Mona Scott-Young, known for her reality series “Love & Hip Hop,” is executive producer along with Eric Tomosunas of Atlanta-based Swirl Films.
It is set to debut on the BET+ streaming service later this year.
The series will be based on Ron Stodghill’s 2007 book “Redbone: Money, Malice and Murder in Atlanta,” which covered the murder in detail.
Herndon was a 41-year-old entrepreneur recognized by two U.S. presidents for his creativity in the computer industry. His firm provided consulting services for the Olympic Games, NationsBank, Coca-Cola Co. and the city of Atlanta.
He was charming, handsome and recently divorced. His brutal murder in Roswell just four days after the end of the 1996 Olympics was initially a mystery. Was it a business rival, threatened by Herndon’s bid for a big contract? Was it a scorned lover jealous of the place occupied in Lance’s bed?
It became a tale full of sex, betrayal and greed, drawing national attention and a bevy of false tips. It took investigators nearly a year and a half before they made an arrest.
The film, much like the book, reconstructs Lance’s life as told by the various players in it.
Keesha Sharp (“Power Book II: Ghost”) will play Blair Herndon, his ex-wife.
The case has been covered on multiple true-crime series such as “The Real Murders of Atlanta” on Oxygen and Tamron Hall’s “Someone They Knew” on Atlanta-based Court TV.
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