The mystery writer Patricia Cornwell is best known for creating Kay Scarpetta, a Virginia medical examiner who first appeared in Cornwell’s 1990 debut novel. In the decades since, multiple Scarpetta movie projects have stalled in the development phase. Now the character is finally making it to the screen, in a TV series, with Nicole Kidman playing Kay and Jamie Lee Curtis playing her sister Dorothy. The “Scarpetta” showrunner is Elizabeth Sarnoff, whose writing credits include “Deadwood,” “Lost” and “Barry.” The creative team — which also includes the director and producer David Gordon Green — is taking an unusual approach to the first season, with a mystery that has the older Scarpetta reinvestigating her first big case. Rosy McEwen plays the young Kay, in a story that jumps between the past and present, taking advantage of 30-plus years of Cornwell’s lore.