The Devil in the White City (screen)2025-01-26T13:01:11-06:00


THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY

plans for a screen adaptation

of Erik Larson’s book


Latest News

January 22, 2025: 20th Century Studios picks up The Devil in the White City as a feature film.

March 6, 2023: Hulu dropped plans to produce The Devil in the White City TV miniseries.

August 29, 2022: “According to a recent listing in Production Weekly, the series is reportedly scheduled to begin filming in March 2023 and will be filmed entirely in Chicago. Exact filming dates and locations have yet to be disclosed at this time.” [ReelChicago.com]

Development of Devil in the White City

A film adaptation of The Devil in the White City was first developed by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner through their Cruise/Wagner company, but the option lapsed in 2004. Paramount acquired the film rights in 2007 and set it up with producers Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher. Leonardo DiCaprio bought the film rights to The Devil in the White City in 2010 and began developing it as a feature film for Paramount studios to be directed by Martin Scorsese with DiCaprio was set to star in the leading role of the killer Holmes.

In 2019, the project changed to a big-budget miniseries for the streaming service Hulu.  The series is being produced by Paramount TV Studios, ABC Signature, and Appian Way. Hulu canceled their plans in March 2023, but ABC Signature remains committed to the drama and will be shopping the show to new outlets.

Credits

Cast

Producers

Writers

Directors

  • Todd Field reportedly will direct the first two episodes. (out 10/10/2022)

More Information

Internet Movie Database (IMDB) page for the miniseries The Devil in the White City

Posts about Erik Larson’s 2003 book, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

Mar. 22, 2025: “Bertha Honoré Palmer – A Life in Three Acts” (Glen Ellyn, IL)

She was “The Queen of Chicago” and “The Queen of the Fair” in 1893. Bertha Honoré Palmer is the subject of a presentation by historian Laurie Russell on March 22, 2025, sponsored by the Glen Ellyn Historical Society. “Bertha Honore’ Palmer – A Life in Three Acts” will examine her legacy and impact on Chicago and around the world. Vintage photographs will illustrate Bertha Palmer’s life from early childhood, [...]

By |March 19th, 2025|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments

“Isn’t it hideous?” Cleveland Caricature is a Columbian Claptrap

A flower arrangement made of immortelles (everlastings) at the 1893 World’s Fair intended to depict President Grover Cleveland. The floral display in the Horticultural Building turned heads and turned stomachs. This article in the Chicago Tribune about the “Caricature in Immortelles” included a headline declaring “The Alleged Cleveland Picture in the Horticultural Building an Atrocity.” Under the great dome of the horticultural building, just opposite the main entrance, through [...]

By |March 18th, 2025|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , |0 Comments

Dyche’s Panorama of North American Mammals at the 1893 World’s Fair

While countless attractions at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition could make a reasonable claim to be the “most interesting” exhibit on the fairgrounds, the article reprinted below awards that honor to the “Exhibit of Large North American Mammals” in the Kansas State Building. Professor Lewis Lindsay Dyche’s unique panorama is one of the few large displays from the 1893 Exposition that remained intact after the close of the Fair. [...]

By |March 16th, 2025|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments

1893 World’s Fair natural history artifact to be restored

A treasured educational display from the 1893 World’s Fair will be restored, thanks to a $2 million gift. Dyche’s Panorama, formally called the “Exhibit of Large North American Mammals,” was originally displayed inside the Kansas State Building at the Columbian Exposition before finding a permanent home at the University of Kansas. Professor Lewis Lindsay Dyche created the panorama to showcase University’s natural history and taxidermy collection and to “awaken [...]

By |March 15th, 2025|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , |0 Comments

Bounced from the Beer Garden on the Midway Plaisance

Visitors to the 1893 World’s Fair frequently complained about the behavior of restaurant staff, with claims of their padding the bill of fare to not offering polite service. While venturing into cafes and bars among the various international villages of the Midway Plaisance, guests faced even greater tensions due to language barriers and differences in cultural norms. The Beer Garden in front of the Castle in the German [...]

By |March 14th, 2025|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments

Homesick in the German Village

The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 showcased many exciting attractions that were new and unusual to the tens of millions of visitors—electrical devices powered by mammoth dynamos, unfamiliar music and dance from Asian and African cultures, and a giant rotating observation tower. In some instances, though, fairgoers found comfort in the familiar, as in the case of when this immigrant ventured into German Village on the Midway Plaisance and [...]

By |March 13th, 2025|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: |0 Comments

World’s Fair bridge listed among “Chicago’s Most Endangered Buildings 2025”

Preservation Chicago released its “Most Endangered” list for 2025 (on March 4, Chicago's 188th birthday). Included with six threatened buildings is a bridge that allowed tens of millions of visitors to cross the Lagoon during the 1893 World’s Fair. Designed by renowned architectural firm of Burnham & Root, the bridge was built in 1880 and is the oldest extant structure of Frederick Law Olmsted’s original design for Jackson Park. [...]

By |March 7th, 2025|Categories: NEWS|Tags: |0 Comments

Mar. 24, 2025: “Fashion, Ferris Wheels, and Film: Dressing Women for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair” (Crest Hill, IL)

The White Oak Library District Crest Hill Branch is hosting a talk on “Fashion, Ferris Wheels, and Film: Dressing Women for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair” on March 24, 2025, at 7 pm. Kelli Marshall of Chicago Movie Tours will discuss how women navigated societal expectations while dressing for a day of excitement at one of America’s first amusement parks. Through the use of original photographs, vintage newspaper articles, [...]

By |March 3rd, 2025|Categories: EVENTS (past)|2 Comments

Nothing to be ashamed of on the Midway Plaisance

“There is nothing quite so free on earth as living in a large city,” claimed a Wisconsin man visiting Chicago in 1893. A reporter from Philadelphia told of the man’s adventure as he journeyed from downtown to the Midway Plaisance of the World’s Fair and into one of its (at the time) notorious theaters. [Image from Puck magazine, July 31, 1893.] Last night a man who had [...]

By |February 22nd, 2025|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: |0 Comments

Chicago Mayor Proposes that the U.S. Should Annex Canada

Saturday, August 19, 1893, was “British Empire Day” at the World’s Fair, and Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison offered some provocative words for the celebration. According to a visitor from Kansas, the mayor declared: “The World’s Exposition now in session is the greatest Fair the world has ever known. The United Sates is the greatest government of the Earth, and we propose to extend our boundaries by annexing Canada to [...]

By |February 21st, 2025|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , |1 Comment
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