Hulu has decided not to make The Devil in the White City, a project with Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio as executive producers that has been in the works for more than a decade.
Keanu Reeves was linked to the drama, but departed last October, as well as director Todd Field.
Sources told The Hollywood Reporter Tuesday that actors Jude Law and Jeremy Allen White and director Matt Ross have been in discussion with ABC Signature to do the project, which the production company is prepared to shop around.
It was not immediately clear if the talks with Law, White and Ross would fall through given the most recent development, the outlet reported.
Based on the 2003 book of the same name by Erik Larson, Devil In The White City 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.
The storyline also revolves around Dr. H. H. Holmes, America’s first modern serial killer and the man behind the notorious ‘Murder Castle’ built in the Fair’s shadow.
The series would have been Reeves’ first major U.S. television role in his illustrious career. He was slated to be an executive producer on the project, which was picked up to series last year. Field left the project days after Reeves’ exit.
The project has been in various stages of development since DiCaprio bought the film rights to the book in 2010, and then set it up to be a feature at Paramount with Scorsese to serve as director.
In 2015, Paramount Pictured emerged victorious in a bidding war for the rights to the project at a time that Billy Ray was attached to pen the script, according to THR.
Another incarnation had Sam Shaw as writer, showrunner and exec producer at one point, according to the outlet.
In 2019, Hulu announced a change of direction and that it was now being developed as a big-budget series with DiCaprio and Scorsese executive producing.
DiCaprio is not expected to star in the project, which also includes Jennifer Davisson as an executive producer.
DiCaprio and Scorsese have past collaborated on a number of lauded films, including 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street and 2006’s The Departed, the latter of which Scorsese won his only Oscar for (amid 14 lifetime nominations from 1981-2020).
Source: dailymail.co.uk
