HBO is gearing up to bring a new limited series to the network. According to Variety, the limited series is derived from a novel by author Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl, Sharp Objects) entitled Dark Places. Flynn will be hands-on as writer, co-showrunner and co-creator, and she will also hold the rights to the novel.
Guerrin Gardner (Escape at Dannemora, New Girl) will serve as writer and co-creator alongside Brett Johnson (Mad Men, Ray Donovan), who will be on board as Flynn’s co-showrunner and co-creator, and he will also be a writer on the series. Caroline Garity (The White Darkness) and Theresa Kang (Pachinko, The White Darkness) from Blue Marble Pictures are set to be executive producers, with Monika Bacardi (Ferrari, Waiting for the Barbarians) and Andrea Iervolino (Survivor, Tell It Like a Woman) from Iervolino & Lady Bacardi Entertainment.
Dark Places was first published in 2009 and, as per Variety, the official logline reads: “Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in the famous 1985 ‘Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.’ She survived—and famously testified that her teenage brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, a pair of mother/daughter true crime ‘detectives’ locate a grownup Libby and pump her for details, believing that Ben is innocent. Libby, having spent her youth working the talk show circuit, hopes to once again turn a profit off her tragic history: She’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings —for a fee. As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist traps, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started—on the run from a killer.”
If the series is greenlit for production, it would be the most recent adaptation of one of Flynn’s works. There has been an adaptation of Dark Places in the past. In 2015, the movie adaptation by the same name was released, starring Charlize Theron (Tully, Snow White, and the Huntsman). Yet, according to Variety, it only grossed about $5.1 million worldwide.
Flynn has also worked with HBO before. She was tied to the limited series Sharp Objects starring Amy Adams (Enchanted, Arrival). The series was even nominated for several Emmy Awards. Likewise, as Variety notes, Flynn’s best-known novel, Gone Girl, was adapted into another hit movie by the same name in 2014. The film starred Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day, Pride & Prejudice) and Ben Affleck (Argo, Good Will Hunting), alongside Flynn, who wrote the screenplay. Flynn also has additional screen credits, such as the feature film Widows and Utopia for Amazon.
Gardner and Johnson have been married for a little over a decade. Johnson was a co-creator of Escape at Dannemora, a Showtime Emmy-winning limited series, where Gardner had a role on screen. Johnson has a long list of works under his belt, such as being a writer on shows like Madmen, Ray Donovan and Candy, a limited series for Hulu. Gardner also has a few additional works for two short films entitled Blind on Blind and Chowchilla, in which she was a writer.
Yorn Levine and UTA represent Johnson, Vanguard Management Group represents Gardner and Levine/Greenberg/Rostan Literary Agency, Blue Marble Management, Jackoway Austen Tyerman and WME represent Flynn.