MGM+ Announces Premiere Date for “Murf the Surf,” the True-Crime Docuseries from Imagine Documentaries and R.J. Cutler’s This Machine

Four-part docuseries, based on the infamous jewel thief Jack Roland Murphy, is written and directed by two-time Emmy winner R.J. Cutler (Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry, BELUSHI, The War Room) and executive produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard and will premiere on January 15, 2023

7-Premium linear channel and streaming service MGM+ today announced that Murf the Surf: Jewels, Jesus, and Mayhem in the USA will premiere on January 15, 2023, to coincide with the official launch of MGM+. A new true-crime four-part docuseries from Imagine Documentaries and R.J. Cutler’s This Machine (a part of Sony Pictures Television), the series pulls back the curtain on America’s most infamous jewel thief, Jack Roland Murphy.

The docuseries is directed by Emmy winner R.J. Cutler and executive produced by Cutler and his long-time producing partner Trevor Smith (Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry, BELUSHI) along with Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind, American Gangster), Ron Howard (Thirteen Lives, Apollo 13), Justin Wilkes (Louis Armstrong’s Black and Blues, Light & Magic, MARS), and Sara Bernstein (We Feed People, Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel) for Imagine and Elise Pearlstein (American Factory, Food, Inc.) for This Machine.

In October 2019, the New York Times published an article celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Museum of Natural History. One of the most momentous events to take place on-site was an epic jewel heist, the biggest in American history, mastered by a band of suave “surfer dudes” from Miami in 1964. The key to the operation was Jack Roland Murphy, otherwise known as Murf the Surf, whose name was propelled into pop culture after the heist – creating a notoriety that would stretch far beyond the caper. What followed Murf’s meteoric rise is a spiraling tale of an unspeakable crime, murder, deception, and mayhem which, to this day, remains shrouded in mystery.

This four-part documentary series will explore the tumultuous life of the man behind the legendary nickname. Featuring exclusive access to Jack Roland Murphy himself prior to his death in 2020, the series will address the blurred line between fact and fiction, faith, and delusion, and sanity and madness – raising the timely question of who and how we believe. Murf the Surf will be internationally distributed by MGM.

About R.J. Cutler

R.J. Cutler is an award-winning director and producer who has made some of the most significant documentary films and television series of the past quarter century including the Oscar-nominated The War Room, Emmy- nominated A Perfect Candidate, Sundance Award-winning The September Issue, Peabody Award-winning Listen to Me Marlon, and The World According to Dick Cheney. His most recent work includes the critically acclaimed projects Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry, a cinema verité coming of age story of the singer-songwriter; BELUSHI, about the too-short life of once-in-a-generation talent John Belushi told through previously unheard audiotapes; and the docuseries “Dear… ” which profiled icons such as Spike Lee, Gloria Steinem, and Misty Copeland, telling their stories through the eyes of those who have been most affected by their work. Cutler is also the founder of This Machine, a production company focused on developing non-scripted projects for film and television. Upcoming feature projects for Cutler include documentaries Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: The Final Elton John Performances and the Years That Made His Legend (Disney+) and an Untitled Martha Stewart Documentary (Netflix), both of which Cutler is directing and producing. He is also producing The Devil You Know (HBO) inspired by New York Times columnist Charles Blow’s book. On the television side, Cutler is directing and producing “Big Vape” (Netflix), a series that will chronicle the rise of E-cigarette company Juul, that This Machine is partnering with Amblin to produce. In addition, the company has other yet-to-be-announced projects for Amazon, Showtime, and CNN.