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
Keanu Reeves as Daniel Burnham(confirmed 8/4/2022) (exited 10/7/2022)- Matt Damon?
- Robert Pattison?
Producers
- Sam Shaw (show runner)
- Leonardo DiCaprio
- Martin Scorsese
- Keanu Reeves
- Jennifer Davisson
- Rick Yorn
- Stacey Sher
- Lila Byock
Todd Field(exited 10/10/2022)- Mark Lafferty
- ? Emma Koskoff
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
Eulogies for George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr.
The death of one of America’s great inventors on November 22, 1896, came as a surprise to many. George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. succumbed to complications due to typhoid fever at the tragically young age of thirty-seven. His eponymous attraction debuted at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and helped lift the Exposition into financial success. Despite the great popularity of his rotating invention, Mr. Ferris died under [...]
Only One Thing in the Whole 1893 Exposition Worth Looking at
A man exploring the 1893 World’s Fair in July conveyed this story about an unimpressed visitor from New York: I met a friend on the plaisance yesterday who has just returned from New York. While there he met a New Yorker, whom he asked if he had visited the fair. The New Yorkers said “Yes, in May. I was roasted brown.” “Didn't you like the exposition?” “Like it? I [...]
Meeting on the Midway Plaisance
On any given day, tens or hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world visited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. One visitor commented on the strange coincidence of meeting familiar people on the fairgrounds: “Anyone merely passing among the thousands scattered over the Exposition grounds can get no idea of what a big patch of the earth they represent. You cannot guess how many of [...]
Pennies Crushed as Souvenirs of the 1893 World’s Fair
Long before the United States Mint killed the penny on November 12, 2025, the diminutive copper coin was pressed, squashed, and otherwise elongated. Long before. Numismatists hold that the first elongated coins appeared in the United States at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. At an event offering countless souvenirs, these were strange ones. Vendors used mechanical coin-rolling machines to press pennies into an elongated shape while a [...]
Paragon Ragtime Orchestra releases “Meet Me at the Fair!” CD
The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra (PRO) has released a new album of music from great American World’s Fairs, including the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Meet Me at the Fair! (Rialto Records 6008) features nineteen tracks—nearly seventy minutes of exciting music performed by the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra (PRO). Conducted by Rick Benjamin, the PRO features musicians Arthur Moeller (violin), Bernadette Boerckel (soprano), Paul Murphy and Brandon Bergeron (cornets), and the [...]
Mayhem on the Midway
Chicagoans rioted in the street—looting shops, destroying property, and attacking law enforcement. They were drunk, lascivious, and did not stop their mayhem until morning. The year was 1893. The place was the Midway Plaisance, the entertainment district of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Just two nights earlier, an assassin had gunned down Chicago’s colorful and beloved mayor, Carter Harrison, Sr., at his front door. With the pageant planned for the [...]
179. Picturesque World’s Fair – East Front of the Manufactures Building
EAST FRONT OF THE MANUFACTURES BUILDING.—From the lake alone could be obtained a comprehensive view of the Manufactures Building, the largest structure in the world. From the harbor it could be observed in all the majesty of its magnitude. It was like a mountain range, the first story and descending slope forming foothills to the great dome which, with the balustrade surmounting the promenade formed the crest of the [...]
“The greatest educational exhibit on earth.” Francis W. Parker on the 1893 World’s Fair
Educational reformer Francis W. Parker (1837–1902) advocated for the mental, physical, and moral development of children in public schools. “There is, perhaps, no name more widely known among the teachers of this country, than that of Col. Francis W. Parker,” wrote Lelia E. Patridge in 1883. During the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, Colonel Parker served as the principal of the Cook County Normal School in Chicago. He participated in [...]
1893 Viking Ship featured on “Backstory with Larry Potash”
The October 5, 2025, episode of Backstory with Larry Potash on WGN-TV featured a segment on “The Viking Ship That Took the World by Storm.” The feature story profiles the replica Viking ship that sailed from Norway to Chicago to be displayed at the 1893 World’s Fair. This treasured relic from the Columbian Exposition is preserved today in Geneva, Illinois, under the care of the Friends of the Viking [...]
Sep. 13-Nov 9, 2025: “Nocturne 1893” Haunted House (Schiller Park, IL)
One of Chicagoland’s scariest haunted house attractions invites brave guests to a frightening Fair. 13th Floor Haunted House describes their season attraction “Nocturn 1893”: On the final night of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the lights begin to fade… and something far more sinister takes the stage. You arrive amid the celebration, unaware that behind the dazzling lights, something methodical and monstrous hunts in silence. Guests vanish, rumors spread, [...]