According to Deadline, Ryan Murphy‘s The Shards is officially picked up to series at FX. Homer Gere (The Agency, August), Igby Rigney (The Fall of the House of Usher, The Midnight Club), and Graham Campbell (Late Fame) are joining Kaia Gerber (Bottoms, Saturday Night) as members of the leading cast. This project, from Ryan Murphy Productions and 20th Television, is based on the prep school thriller novel of the same name, written by Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho, Less Than Zero).  

The Shards was first released as a serialized audiobook before it hit bookstands in 2023. It is a dark coming-of-age tale, with some semi-autobiographical elements for Ellis, set in Los Angeles in 1981. The narrative follows a 17-year-old version of Ellis during his final year at the Buckley prep school, whose world is disrupted by the mysterious new student Robert Mallory. Mallory, whose presence seems to coincide with the movements of serial killer “The Trawler,” Deadline notes. 

Ellie is portrayed by Rigney, Gere, son of Richard Gere (Pretty Woman, Primal Fear), will play Robert Mallory, and Campbell will play Thom Wright.  Thom and Robert are significant characters in the novel, Deadline adds. 

Back in May, Deadline announced that this project was in development at FX, and Max Winkler (Jungleland, Flower) will direct. The sale arrived months after Ellis and Murphy teamed up to adapt his novel for television earlier this year. Prior to this, since 2023, Ellis had tried to get a different manifestation of The Shards off the ground at HBO. Murphy had teamed with Ellis to adapt his novel for TV earlier this year. As a writer, he was very attached to that version, which he was set to executive produce alongside Brian Young (The Vampire Diaries, Kyle XY), Nick Hall (The White Lotus, Maniac Cop), and Kathleen McCaffrey (A Poor Kid’s Guide to Success). Filmmakers Kristoffer Borgli (Dream Scenario, Sick of Myself) and Luca Guadagnino (Challengers, Call Me by Your Name) flirted with directing the project for a time, but in the end, it didn’t move forward. 

Ellis rose to fame in the 1980s with his debut novel Less Than Zero, published when he was 21 years old. Rising to fame in the 1980s as one of the defining voices of Generation X, with his debut novel Less Than Zero, published when he was 21 years old, Ellis remains best known for American Psycho, which Guadagnino is set to direct for Lionsgate, in a reimagining of this 2000 classic starring Christian Bale (The Dark Knight, Batman Begins), Deadline states.

20th Television is producing The Shards with studio-based Ryan Murphy Productions. Ellis, Murphy, and Winkler will executive produce alongside Young, Hall, and McCaffrey, and the writer is yet to be announced, as mentioned by Deadline. 

Gere is represented by Brookside Artist management, WME, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Rigney is repped by Canopy Media Partners, Buchwald, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Campbell is repped by Anonymous Content, CAA, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman, Deadline finally notes.