The Adaptation of Devil in the White City Is No Longer Happening at Hulu

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With a real-life "murder castle," a 19th-century setting, and the world's first ferris wheel, Erik Larson's best-selling book, The Devil in the White City, has been begging for an onscreen adaption since it was published in 2003. It's been in the works for a while, but now Hulu has seemingly dropped it. Here's what we know about the upcoming The Devil in the White City adaptation.

Hulu announced that the project was coming back in 2019.

At the Television Critics Association Press Tour, Craig Erwich, Hulu’s senior vice president of originals, said that The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic And Madness At The Fair That Changed America was being developed into a series for Hulu—with Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese attached to the produce.

In an earlier iteration of the project, DiCaprio was set to star as serial killer Dr. H.H. Holmes, but in 2022, Keanu Reeves was attached to the show. Reeves later dropped out, and in March 2023, it was reported that Hulu is no longer moving forward with the show. The Hollywood Reporter noted that Jeremy Allen White, Jude Law, and director Matt Ross are still in talks to work on Devil in the White City if it lands elsewhere.

The story follows Henry H. Holmes, a.k.a. Dr. H. H. Holmes, America’s first modern serial killer who built a "Murder Castle" in the shadow of the 1893 World Fair, and Daniel Hudson Burnham, the director of works at the Fair. As the publisher's description of the Erik Larson book reads: "Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century."

It was originally supposed to be a movie.

DiCaprio has been trying to bring H.H. Holmes's story to the screen since 2003, but a lot has changed along the way. For one, DiCaprio hasn't always held the rights to the book. Originally, he was hoping to work from public domain material about Holmes, who is said to have murdered somewhere between 27 and 200 people during the 1893 World's Fair.

Tom Cruise and Kathryn Bigelow, another actor-director team, initially had the rights. Their agreement lapsed in 2004, and DiCaprio acquired it thereafter. In 2015, he brought on Scorsese, who's been attached to the project since.

All previously announced projects were set to be feature films. This series project adds a new twist to the adaptation.

Devil in the White City could still happen.

Per Deadline, production on the show was not expected to begin until 2023. After it was dropped at Hulu, producers ABC Signature plan to shop it to other networks.

Stay tuned—we'll keep you updated as this show evolves.

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