Dexter’s Julie Benz to star in Held Hostage movie on Lifetime

Julie Benz, a.ka. the newly married Mrs. Dexter Morgan, has another thriller on her to-do list this year.

In July, Benz will star in the based-on-a-true story movie Held Hostage. The Lifetime project is based on a book by Michelle Renee, who rose above her childhood abuse and life as a teenage runaway to become a bank executive. She was later stalked and kidnapped at gunpoint, held hostage for 14 hours and forced to rob a bank — all to save her only daughter’s life.

The story takes us into the court system as the state tries to prosecute her attackers, but the defense lawyers dredge up information from her past that could hurt the case against them — and damage her in the eyes of her daughter.

The film debuts on Lifetime July 19. Want more deets? Here’s the press release.

Image: Bauer-Griffin