Two-time Emmy winner Judy Davis, who's played Judy Garland and Nancy Reagan in recent years, will take on another real-life role -- albeit with a decidedly different spin -- for Lifetime.

Davis is set to star in "Dead End," a movie about mother-and-son grifters Sante and Kenneth Kimes, whose murder trial for the killing of an elderly New York woman made headlines five years ago. The Lifetime project is the second TV movie about the Kimeses, following the 2001 CBS film "Like Mother, Like Son," which starred Mary Tyler Moore.

"The story of Sante and Kenneth Kimes is a fascinating and tragic tale of greed and manipulation," says Trevor Walton, head of original movies at Lifetime. "We are extremely excited to have the phenomenally talented and versatile Judy Davis bring this dark and complex real-life character to the screen."

"Dead End" (a working title) will trace the strange emotional hold Sante Kimes had on her son and the string of crimes the pair perpetrated in the 1990s, which included the murder of wealthy Manhattanite Irene Silverman, for which both were convicted in 2000, and the death of Granada Hills, Calif., businessman David Kazdin, who unwittingly was caught up in a fraud scheme hatched by Sante Kimes.

Kenneth Kimes testified against his mother in the Kazdin case last year, and Sante was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Kenneth Kimes pleaded guilty and also received a life sentence.

Davis won an Emmy in 2001 for playing Garland in the ABC movie "Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows." It was her second win, following a 1995 award for NBC's "Serving in Silence." She's been nominated six other times, most recently for "The Reagans," and also has two Oscar nominations to her credit, for "Husbands and Wives" and "A Passage to India."

Richard Benjamin ("My Favorite Year," "Mermaids") will direct "Dead End." Teena Booth is writing the script.