Last month, Bret Easton Ellis revealed that “The Shards” was no longer at HBO. Kristoffer Borgli was supposed to direct the series which originally had Luca Guadagnino attached.
THR is now reporting that none other than Ryan Murphy has rescued Ellis’ series from development hell. Murphy is apparently closing in on a deal to take over the whole project. I guess this is what you might call a downgrade.
Murphy, a prolific six-time Emmy award winner, has created an innumerable amount of successful television shows including “Nip/Tuck,” “Glee,” “American Crime Story,” “American Horror Story,” “Pose” and “Monster.”
No word yet on which network could have nabbed the rights to air Murphy’s ’Shards’ (FX?) but I reached out to a source who told me that, compared to how hands on he was with the HBO iteration of the series, Ellis would be “far less involved” in the creative process this time around.
"The Shards,” which was in full blown pre-production mode, had been written by Ellis, and based on his own novel. The author recently spoke about the “frustrating” experience he had working on the series with Warner Bros, and that he felt like he wasted an entire year for nothing.
“The Shards” is a fictionalized memoir of Ellis' final year of high school in 1981 Los Angeles. Jacob Elordi was rumored to star, but there never was any confirmation about his casting. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s no longer attached.
Ellis’ fallout with HBO had to do with creative differences, and the route of the show steering into a whole other direction, with multiple new scripts happening without Ellis’ approval.
Ellis’ original idea was for “The Shards” to have three seasons of ten episodes each. The author had mentioned that there would be subplots in the series that weren’t in the original novel.