Producer Stacey Sher gave Deadline the latest update along what has been the very winding road to adapting Erik Larson’s bestselling non-fiction classic, The Devil in the White City, for the screen.

The project has been in various stages of development since before Deadline revealed that Leonardo DiCaprio had bought the film rights to the book in 2010. He subsequently set it up as a feature at Paramount with Scorsese to direct and himself to star. In 2019, Hulu announced that it was developing the project as a big-budget series with DiCaprio and Scorsese exec producing. Last year, Hulu decided not to proceed with the project. ABC Signature, which had the project in Association with Paramount Television Studios, indicated at the time a continuing commitment to the project and hope of finding it a new home. That was in March 2023.

Source: Deadline

CHICAGO — H.H. Holmes, the White City and Murder Castle are about to get a Hollywood makeover.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese will executive produce a television series for Hulu based on Erik Larson’s book “The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America.””

Published in 2004, Larson’s book covers the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, highlighting the efforts of architect Daniel H. Burnham and H.H. Holmes, one of America’s first serial killers.

DiCaprio and Scorsese have been trying to do something with the book for over a decade.

DiCaprio was originally slated to play Holmes in a movie, but it’s unclear if those plans are still in place.

No word yet on when the series will debut on the online video platform.