Jake Cannavale Plays His Dad Bobby in ‘Scarpetta’ But Took Inspo From ‘SVU’

Prime Video’s upcoming Scarpetta series has a star-studded cast, which includes the father-son duo of Bobby Cannavale and Jake Cannavale.

“I’m playing basically the young version of my pop as a detective in 1998 in this kickass detective show with Rosy McEwen,” Jake, 30, teased to Us Weekly exclusively late last year while promoting American Sports Story. “I’m very excited.”

Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis are set to take on the roles of Dr. Kay Scarpetta and Dorothy Scarpetta, respectively, while Bobby, 55, will play former detective Pete Marino. Along with the present-day story lines, the show will include flashbacks with McEwen, 31, as a young Kay, Amanda Righetti as young Dorothy and Jake as young Pete.

When it came to creating the character, Jake wasn’t too focused on, essentially, playing his father. In fact, one pretty iconic fictional cop came to mind.

“My favorite show of all time is Law and Order: SVU,” Jake said. “So, when I found out that I’m playing a hotheaded male detective partner to a fiercely feminine protective detective, I was like, ‘Yes, this is full circle.’ [An] absolute manifest dream.”

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He was, of course, referring to Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) and Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), the iconic characters at the center of SVU since 1999.

At the time, Jake was just “reading the scripts” and shooting hadn’t started yet — but he was hopeful.

“It’s really good,” he teased. “The show’s gonna be great.”

The 66-year-old Curtis more recently offered Us more details about the show. More specifically how she and Kidman, 57, were both cast.

“[Author] Patricia Cornwell has been writing about a medical examiner named Dr. Kay Scarpetta for over 20 years, and I can’t even tell you how many millions of people have bought these books,” Curtis told Us at Amazon’s 2025 upfront presentation on May 12. “Nicole is going to play Dr. Kay Scarpetta.”

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Kidman introduced herself to Curtis at the Oscars — which eventually led to the job offer.

“We exchanged hellos and a little bit of chick bonding,” Curtis said. “But then we walked away and I was like, ‘OK, wow. That was crazy.’ And six months later she heard that we were making the Scarpetta show and that I was producing and she basically said, ‘I want to be Scarpetta.’ And then when I went, ‘OK, great,’ she said, ‘But you’re going to be in it with me, right?’”

She added, “It was that moment of like, ‘Yes, Nicole Kidman. Yes. I’m going to be in a show with you.’ I had no choice.”

Prime Video has already greenlit two seasons of the show, in which both Curtis and Kidman are executive producers. No release date has been announced just yet.