When Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl broke out to become the runaway literary hit of the summer, Hollywood naturally turned its focus to getting the thriller author’s rabid fans into theaters. Quickly, 20th Century Fox and Se7en director David Fincher snagged Gone Girl. That red-hot thriller adaptation, starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, is being positioned as an awards contender and given an Oscar-friendly release in October. Then, Exclusive Media grabbed the rights to Flynn’s earlier novel Dark Places (out this September), which Charlize Theron will star in alongside Chloë Grace Moretz. Now, we’re hearing that Flynn’s debut thriller Sharp Objects is also getting adapted – but, intriguingly, for the small screen.
Entertainment One is developing and producing Sharp Objects, on which Flynn will collaborate with producers Marti Noxon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity). The author will be serving as an executive-producer on the drama series, Noxon will serve as showrunner and writer, and Blum will produce through Blumhouse Productions along with Charles Layton.
Sharp Objects, published in 2006, is described by Amazon as follows:
Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming.
This isn’t Flynn’s first venture on the small screen. She’s reteaming with Fincher for the HBO series Utopia, scripting the entire show and also participating as an executive producer. An adaptation of a British series, Utopia follows fans of an iconic graphic novel who learn that the much-coveted sequel is surrounded by a massive, deadly conspiracy and is actually much more than just a novel. Fincher will direct the pilot for the series, which already has a series order.
We’ll be watching Sharp Objects very closely, as it will be tremendously exciting to see another dark psychological drama on TV now that Top of the Lake is done.
