If this week has taught us anything it’s that nothing guarantees a film or movie will make it to the screen. That’s true even when a studio spends $90 million dollars and finishes a whole movie. So we understand if you long ago gave up on Hulu’s adaptation of Erik Larson’s 2003 best-selling non-fiction book The Devil in the White City. We first told you about the planned series in February 2019. That might as well be a thousand years ago! And that followed decades of failed attempts to bring the story of the first modern serial killer to the big screen. But fear not, because the streaming service has finally picked up the show from executive producers Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio to air. And it will be worth the wait, because it will star Keanu Reeves.
Variety reports Hulu is officially moving ahead with The Devil in the White City. The site has ordered the adaptation to series, with Reeves set to take on his first leading television role. He’ll play the architect Daniel H. Burnham, one of the breakout stars of the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. He designed the event’s “white city” that lends its name to the book.
The “devil,” though, refers to the infamous serial killer H.H. Holmes. His heinous crimes took place near the World’s Fair. He claimed to have murdered more than 200 people in his building known as “Murder Castle.” Holmes designed the three-story labyrinth to trap victims inside. That’s where he killed and dismembered them before cremating them in the basement.
According to Variety, Sam Shaw will adapt the book. He’ll also serve as showrunner and executive producer. Todd Field will direct. And if nothing prevents the show from airing, it will mark the end of a long journey from the page to the screen.
With the current state of Hollywood, though, we’ll literally have to see it to know it’s real.