Hulu Drops ‘Devil In The White City’; ABC Signature Hopes To Find New Home For Limited Series

The devil was in the details, apparently: Hulu has decided not to move ahead with The Devil in the White City.

The long-gestating limited series was to tell 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.

Keanu Reeves originally was attached to star but exited in October. Director Todd Field departed soon thereafter. An effort was made to replace them, with offers that ultimately did not pan out.

The eight-episode series was targeted for a 2024 launch, with production not expected to commence until this year. From ABC Signature in Association with Paramount Television Studios, Devil was set to be executive produced by Martin Scorsese, Rick Yorn, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson, Stacey Sher, Sam Shaw, Lila Byock and Mark Lafferty.

ABC Signature remains committed to the project and hopes to find a new home.

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.