EXCLUSIVE: Prime TV producer Ryan Muprhy has lined up his subsequent high-profile collection venture. FX is in early growth on The Shards, primarily based on Bret Easton Ellis‘ prep college thriller novel, with Kaia Gerber set to star and Max Winkler hooked up to direct, sources inform Deadline.
Each are earlier Murphy collaborators: Gerber had recurring roles on each American Horror Story and spin-off American Horror Tales, whereas Winkler has emerged as a go-to director for Murphy. He just lately labored on the third season of Netflix’s Monster and is ready to helm the pilot episode of the upcoming FX collection American Love Story.
The Shards can be produced by twentieth Tv in affiliation with studio-based Ryan Murphy Tv. Murphy, Ellis and Winkler govt produce alongside Nick Corridor, Kathleen McCaffrey and Brian Younger. No phrase but on who’s writing.
Reps for FX and studio twentieth Tv declined remark.
The sale comes months after Murphy teamed with Ellis to adapt his novel for TV earlier this 12 months. Beforehand, Ellis tried to get a distinct incarnation of The Shards off the bottom at HBO since 2023. He was hooked up as a author to that model, which he was to govt produce alongside Corridor, Younger, and McCaffrey. Status filmmakers Luca Guadagnino (Challengers) and Kristoffer Borgli (Dream Situation) each flirted with directing the venture for a time. In the end, it didn’t go ahead.
First unveiled as a serialized audiobook earlier than hitting bookstands in 2023, The Shards is a darkish coming-of-age story with semi-autobiographical aspects for Ellis. Set in Los Angeles in 1981, the story follows a 17-year-old model of Ellis throughout his remaining 12 months on the elite Buckley prep college. Upending the character’s world is the arrival of a mysterious new scholar, Robert Mallory, whose unsettling presence coincides with the actions of a serial killer referred to as The Trawler.
Rising to fame within the Eighties as one of many defining voices of Era X, together with his debut novel Much less Than Zero, revealed when he was simply 21 years outdated, Ellis stays greatest recognized for American Psycho, which Guadagnino has been set to direct for Lionsgate, in a reimagining of the 2000 traditional starring Christian Bale.
Gerber just lately appeared on Max’s hit comedy Hacks and also can at the moment be seen in Benito Skinner’s comedy collection Overcompensating at Amazon. Different latest and upcoming tasks embody Jason Reitman’s Saturday Evening, Jonah Hill’s darkish comedy Consequence for Apple, and the Apple collection Palm Royale, which is heading into its second season. She is repped by CAA, Entertainment360, DNA Mannequin Administration, and Sloan, Supply, Weber & Dern.
Murphy is coming off of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the second season of his standard Monster anthology collection for Netflix. A 3rd season of the present, starring Charlie Hunnam as assassin turned Psycho inspiration Ed Gein, is anticipated to premiere subsequent 12 months.
Underneath his twentieth TV general deal, Murphy has quite a lot of new collection developing, together with 9-1-1: Nashville on ABC, the Hulu authorized drama All’s Honest starring Kim Kardashian, and each American Love Story and The Magnificence at FX. He’s repped by CAA and Paul Hastings for authorized.
Nellie Andreeva contributed to this report.
