HBO has had its fair-share of problems of late. They’ve perpetually stalled Westworld, shut down production on Steve McQueen’s Code of Conduct and given the axe to two separate David Fincher projects: Video Synchronicity and Utopia. And where the latter would’ve reunited the director with his Gone Girl writer Gillian Flynn, it looks like the Home Box Office isn’t calling it quits with the bestselling author just yet. They’ve officially picked up Sharp Objects, an eight-part mini-series based on her novel of the same name, with Amy Adams set to play the lead and Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club, Wild) directing every episode.
Deadline reports Flynn will help write this adaptation alongside UnReal co-creator Marti Nixon, who joins as the showrunner. Based on the 2006 New York Times-bestseller, it centers on reporter Camille Preaker (Adams) who must return to her small hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls following a brief stay at the psychiatric hospital. The more she studies this case, however, the closer she finds herself identifying with the victims. The award-winning book stayed on the list for over 70 weeks, and as such, this adaptation sparked a lot of interest. Reportedly, Netflix was aggressively seeking this project, hoping to bring this murder tale to life.
Sharp Objects marks not one, but two separate HBO mini-series Vallée is working on at the moment. He’s currently neck-deep on Big Little Lies at the moment, which reunites him with his Wild co-stars Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern along with Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Alexander Skarsgård and Adam Scott, and he’ll presumably get to work on this Flynn adaptation immediately after he finishes working on those seven episodes. That’s a lot for one filmmaker to take on, especially with such little turnaround. But he’s talented, passionate and committed enough to want to make it work. And if that wasn’t enough to handle, he’s also planning to co-edit the upcoming series too. This guy doesn’t like to take it easy, apparently.
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Nixon, Flynn, Vallée and Adams are all on board as executive producers as well. Meanwhile, producing superstar Jason Blum is also involved, as are Charles Layton, Jessica Rhoades and Nathan Ross, Vallée’s regular producing partner. It’s a lot of talented people coming together at once, so this one is most definitely on my radar. Hopefully, though, it doesn’t befall on the bad luck found on many promising HBO projects of late.
