Hulu is now searching for a new director and star for its upcoming limited series The Devil In The White City. Director Todd Field is the latest to depart the project, sources confirmed to Deadline. Hulu declined comment.
Field’s exit follows the departure last week of star and executive producer Keanu Reeves.
The long-gestating adaptation of Erik Larson’s Devil in the White City tells the story of Daniel H. Burnham, a demanding but visionary architect who races to make his mark on history with the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and Dr. H. H. Holmes, America’s first modern serial killer and the man behind the notorious “Murder Castle” built in the Fair’s shadow.
The eight-episode series is targeted for a 2024 launch, with production not expected to commence until next year.
The series hails from ABC Signature in Association with Paramount Television Studios. Executive Producers are Martin Scorsese, Rick Yorn, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson (Appian Way), Stacey Sher, Sam Shaw, Lila Byock, Todd Field, Mark Lafferty. Shaw is writing and will serve as showrunner. Field will direct.
The project has been in various stages of development since DiCaprio bought the film rights to the book in 2010 and previously set it up as a feature at Paramount with Scorsese to direct. In 2019, Hulu announced that it was developing the project as a big-budget series with DiCaprio and Scorsese exec producing.
Field has been garnering award season buzz for his film Tár, which he wrote and directed in his return to filmmaking after a 16-year stretch. The film, which world premiered at the recent Venice Film Festival, stars Cate Blanchett as the titular fictional character Lydia Tár, the first female chief conductor of a major German orchestra who is at the height of and grappling with her genius, swimming in the abyss of it and the toll it takes on those closest to her while a #MeToo scandal swirls.
Variety was first to report Field’s exit.
Deadline’s Lynette Rice contributed to this report.
Denise Petski
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