Gillian Flynn's debut novel Sharp Objects is being adapted into an 8 episode HBO series starring Amy Adams.
The showrunner and principal scriptwriter is Marti Noxon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame, and the series is being produced by eOne and Jason Blum who previously worked together on Sinister and Insidious. Flynn will also work on the script. Jean Marc Vallee (Dallas Buyers Club) will "direct the series." I'm not sure if this means he will be directing every episode, but his is the only name attached at this point.
The story follows and is narrated by a young journalist whose mental health issues and proclivity for cutting herself are exacerbated by the grim stories she often has to cover. She is struggling to stay on an even keel after a recent stay in a psychiatric hospital, when her boss asks her to return to her hometown to cover yet another murder story.
Her investigation takes her deep into a web of gruesome crimes and forces her to confront painful things about herself, her family and her past. (That's how the book went down at any rate.)
Details are sparse but seem to be emerging slowly but surely. The show is set to premiere in 2017 and has been compared (by Noxon) to True Detective.
So i fucking adored this book. There have been rumors of a TV adaptation for a few years, but after the half assed film adaptation of Flynn's other novel Dark Places, i wasn't too excited.
But with Noxon as showrunner collaborating with the author on the script, an Oscar nominated lead actress in Adams, the involvement of the production team that brought us insidious, the director of a film which received six oscar nominations on board, and the fact that HBO's shows are generally pretty bad ass, i am utterly thrilled. I have a feeling that this will finally be the vehicle that does justice to Gillian Flynn's dark, smart writing style. Honestly, i can't fucking wait.
All this needs is a score by Trent or Atticus.