Ryan Murphy and FX are in early development on a series adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ 2023 book”The Shards.” Kaia Gerber is attached to star, and Max Winkler is attached to direct.
“The Shards,” a horror novel, centers a fictional serial killer in 1980s Los Angeles while incorporating semi-autobiographical details from Ellis’ upbringing. The novel’s official description via Penguin Random House imprint Knopf reads, “17-year-old Bret is a senior at the exclusive Buckley prep school when a new student arrives with a mysterious past. Robert Mallory is bright, handsome, charismatic and shielding a secret from Bret and his friends even as he becomes a part of their tightly knit circle. Bret’s obsession with Mallory is equaled only by his increasingly unsettling preoccupation with the Trawler, a serial killer on the loose who seems to be drawing ever closer to Bret and his friends, taunting them — and Bret in particular — with grotesque threats and horrific, sharply local acts of violence. The coincidences are uncanny, but they are also filtered through the imagination of a teenager whose gifts for constructing narrative from the filaments of his own life are about to make him one of the most explosive literary sensations of his generation.”
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Ellis is best known for writing the 1991 novel “American Psycho,” which was later adapted into Mary Harron’s 2000 novel of the same name. His other books include “Less than Zero” (1985), “The Rules of Attraction” (1987), “The Informers” (1994), “Glamorama” (1998), “Lunar Park” (2005) and “Imperial Bedrooms” (2010).
Gerber previously worked with Murphy on both “American Horror Story” and “American Horror Stories,” with other prominent credits including the film “Bottoms” and the series “Palm Royale” and “Overcompensating.”
Winkler also worked on “American Horror Story” and “American Horror Stories,” as well as four more Murphy projects: “The Watcher,” “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans,” “Monster: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” and “Grotesquerie.”
If greenlit, “The Shards” will add to the long list of upcoming projects from Murphy’s overall deal at Disney. This fall, Hulu will premiere his Kim Kardashian-led legal drama “All’s Fair” while ABC unveils “9-1-1” spinoff “9-1-1 Nashville.” His future FX series include body horror “The Beauty” as well as “American Love Story,” based on the relationship between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy.
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