THE JOSH POWELL LIFETIME MOVIE

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New details are emerging in the gruesome murder suicide of Josh Powell and his two sons.   Not only did he carefully plan the gasoline fire inside his home, officials are now saying he took a hatchet to his 5-yr old son Braden's head and to the neck of his 7-yr old son Charlie.  Both eventually died of carbon monoxide poisoning, but the agony they experienced in the moments leading up to their death must have been excruciating.

Powell was long suspected in the disappearance of his wife Susan back in 2010.   He claimed no knowledge of his wife's disappearance and said he had left the house with his two sons after midnight to go on a "camping trip." 

No one really believed the story and the more investigators looked into the matter, the creepier it seemed to get.   Josh and his two sons moved in with his father Steve Powell, but after charges of child pornography possession surfaced, the children were placed in the custody of Susan's parents.  

The children's grandfather Chuck Cox recently intimated that the two boy were beginning to remember more clearly what had happened on the alleged camping trip.  They seemed to indicate that their mother's body was in the trunk of their family car, but they had no idea where they were or how their mother died.

Josh must have seen the writing on the wall.  During one of his court appointed visitations with his sons, he overpowered the CPS official and locked her out of the house.  From there, he set the house alight with firebombs made of gasoline and took a hatchet to his children.  

He believed that if he couldn't have his children -- no one could.  

This is a tragedy, no doubt, but also exactly the kind of thing story that becomes a bad lifetime movie.  The story has twists ands turns, the family has plenty of skeletons and the ending is a barn burner -- so to speak.

If we had to cast the tv movie for Lifetime.  Who would I cast.  Hmmm..

As the creepy wife/child killer Josh Powell I would go for someone not known for dramatic roles. 

For Susan Powell, you need an anchor.  She will be missing/dead for a majority of the movie, so she needs to have a huge impact for very little screen time.  

For Susan's parents, you need a bit of stunt casting. This would insure Cable Ace Awards, Emmys and possibly a Golden Globe.

To play the child porn loving father Steve Powell, you need someone that can play smarmy and pedophile without a sense of irony or melodrama. You need someone that can own it and really believe what is he is saying.  

For the Sheriff investigating the crimes surrounding Josh Powell, you need a trusting tv face.  Someone you've seen a million times before in some facet of law enforcement.  A Hill Street Blues regular, methinks...

As cold and callous as this must seem, you can believe it will happen.  A two hour tv movie about this case is destined to for the small screen and when it comes, you can bet Jack Wagner will have been attached at some point.