'Devil in the White City': After Keanu Reeves, Leonardo DiCaprio starrer series loses director Todd Field
Oct 11, 2022
Washington [US], October 11 : Film-maker Todd Field exited 'Devil in the White City', the project he was to serve as director and executive producer, giving another blow to Hulu, right after news of Keanu Reeves exiting the project broke in.
According to Variety, the search is now on for a new director. The most recent film Field wrote and directed was 'Tar,' a drama with Cate Blanchett that made its world premiere at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival. The movie debuted to rapturous acclaim and is currently being hailed as a potential early Oscar contender.
In his review for Variety, Owen Gleiberman wrote, "The movie is breathtaking in its drama, its high-crafted innovation, its vision. It's a ruthless but intimate tale of art, lust, obsession, and power."
Hulu first started developing 'The Devil in the White City' in 2019, and the streaming service formally ordered it into a series in August of that same year. The same-named book by Erik Larson served as its inspiration.
Per the official logline for 'The Devil in the White City,' the show "tells the true story of Daniel H. Burnham, a demanding but visionary architect who races to make his mark on history with the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, and Dr. H. H. Holmes, America's first modern serial killer and the man behind the notorious 'Murder Castle' built in the Fair's shadow."
According to Variety, the series' executive producers are Martin Scorsese, Rick Yorn, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson of Appian Way, Stacey Sher, Sam Shaw, and Mark Lafferty. Sam Shaw, who will also serve as the showrunner and executive producer, is adapting the book for the big screen alongside Lila Byock. In collaboration with Paramount Television Studios, ABC Signature will produce.
In the lengthy process of the book's development, this is the most recent chapter. With the intention of turning it into a movie in which he would play Holmes, DiCaprio bought the rights in 2010. In 2015, Scorsese agreed to take over the director's chair, and Billy Ray was assigned to pen the script. Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner's Cruise/Wagner banner, which has a deal with Paramount, put it in development in Hollywood for the first time. However, the option expired in 2004. Paramount once again purchased the movie rights in 2007, who then teamed up with Sher and Michael Shamberg as producers.
