Having been in the making for over a decade now Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio’s ‘Devil In The White City’ has received yet another blow as the limited series gets cancelled at Hulu.
This news comes after the withdrawal of Keanu Reeves and ‘Tár’ director Todd Field from the project earlier. The later supposedly walked away from ‘Devil In The White City’ after the former left it.
‘Devil In The White City’ is based on the 2003 best-selling book of the same name by Erik Larson, that was high in demand ever since it was published. Set in Chicago, the story follows parallel stories of architect Daniel Burnham, who was instrumental to the building of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and depraved serial killer H.H. Holmes, who had, on paper, confessed to 27 murders. When their worlds collided what followed is something very fascinating and impressive for mystery and crime thriller lovers.
Many attempted to adapt the book into a film. That even include Tom Cruise and Kathryn Bigelow, but it was Leonardo DiCaprio who was successful in acquiring the film rights for the book in 2010. It was five years later in 2015 that Martin Scorsese came on board to direct it.
Nothing materialised until 2019 when the format for ‘Devil In The White City’ changed from film to miniseries with Sam Show (‘Castle Rock’, ‘Manhattan’) set to serve as the showrunner. Then again the project took pace in 2022 with the news of Keanu Reeves set to lead the show but that didn’t work out.
Following that another setback for the series came with director Todd Field’s departure. And now comes the latest news of Hulu cancelling the series. Though makers will now move to some other streamer, ‘Devil In The White City’ production has taken way too long and has been nothing but troublesome. The only hope is that when it comes out after everything it better be worth it.