A limited series based on Gillian Flynn’s Dark Places is in the works at HBO, Variety reports.
Flynn’s novel, published in 2009 by Shaye Areheart/Harmony, tells the story of a woman who survived the vicious slayings of her family years before, and testified that her brother was the killer. She agrees to revisit the case in exchange for money from a group obsessed with old crimes.
A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “Every sentence crackles with enough baleful energy to fuel a whole town through the coldest Kansas winter.”
Flynn will co-write the adaptation and serve as a showrunner alongside Brett Johnson and Guerrin Gardner.
This will be the second adaptation of Dark Places, which previously formed the basis for a 2015 film directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner and starring Charlize Theron, Christina Hendricks, and Nicholas Hoult. Flynn’s other two novels have also been adapted for the screen: Sharp Objects as a 2018 miniseries directed by Jean-Marc Vallée starring Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson, and Gone Girl as a blockbuster 2014 film helmed by David Fincher and starring Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck.
Deadline also announced this week that Flynn is writing the screenplay for a reimagining of the 1958 film Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, which Tim Burton will direct. Flynn shared the news of both projects on Instagram with a Simpsons reference: “Everything’s coming up Gillhouse!”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
