We should have expected a Carlee Russell film, but we didn’t expect one so soon.
AL.com reports that a new film based on Russell’s wild false kidnappings story, The Nurse That Saw the Baby on the Highway, is now on Prime Video. Viewers can rent the film for just $1.99 or buy it for $4.99. The trailer below shows the film taking place at what appears to be the actual Target on Highway 280 in Hoover, AL, where Russell bought her infamous box of Cheez-Its.
The 49-minute film is directed by Alvin Gray and stars Reena Ranae as “Marlee Wilson,” a character based on Russell, the Hoover nursing student who captivated the world with her initially harrowing tale of seeing an abandoned baby on the side of the highway before being kidnapped July 13. Russell came back home two days later, leading to Hoover and greater Birmingham, AL community having pressing questions about possible kidnappers in the area. Fears were allayed when the Hoover police revealed Russell had, in fact, made up the entire scenario. However, more questions arose surrounding Russell’s reasons for making up the story.
The film colors some of the “true” events with allegations that also came out around the incident, including her rumors about her relationship with her ex-boyfriend and the rumor that Russell committed the crime to get attention from him. Per the film’s IMDb description (as reported by AL.com), “Based on true/false events, nursing student Marlee Wilson has been struggling with day-to-day issues with school, work, and her cheating boyfriend that’s addicted to strippers. Feeling like she’s not getting enough attention from her boyfriend, she decides to fake a kidnapping, but the hoax ends up getting deeper than she ever expected bringing real-life issues across the country.”
Despite the film following a fictional character based on Russell, the film still contains audio from the real police press conference that detailed the series of events leading to Russell’s false kidnapping. In fact, Gray melded fiction and fact in his Instagram post about the film, in which they proposed Ranae sign autographs in character as Marlee.
“Should we do special guest appearances with Marlee, and have her sign boxes of #cheezits?!!!” they wrote.
The film also stars Gray, Evan Carrington and Lynae Gregg.
In reality, Russell’s first court date, a pretrial docket pertaining to her misdemeanor charges for falsifying a kidnapping, will take place Oct. 11 in Hoover Municipal Court.
