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
Dec. 8, 2018: “Chicago’s Two World’s Fairs” Symposium at the Newberry Library (Chicago)
The Newberry Library’s Pictures from an Exposition: Visualizing the 1893 World's Fair includes a series of rich programs about the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. On Saturday, December 8, 2018, the Newberry will host a symposium titled “Chicago’s Two World’s Fairs” featuring a morning program on the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and afternoon speakers discussing the Century of Progress International Exposition of 1933-34. Columbian Exposition presentations run from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm and features [...]
Veteran’s Days at the 1893 World’s Fair
Today marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the end of the Great War, when hostilities ceased on the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918. This anniversary is now commemorated in the United States as Veteran’s Day, a time to honor American veterans, both living and dead. The day was originally known--and still is to many--as Armistice Day, for reflecting on how we can achieve [...]
Chicago Mayor DeWitt Cregier Agitates for a World’s Fair
DeWitt Clinton Cregier (June 1, 1829 - November 9, 1898) was Chicago’s 31st mayor--serving from 1889 to 1891--and the first of several “World’s Fair” mayors. “The New York Orphan Who Built Chicago,” Cregier got the ball rolling only a few months into his term by organizing the civic meeting to build the proposal for Chicago to host the Columbian Exposition. The article reprinted below, from The Illustrated World’s Fair, [...]
Dec. 8, 2018: “Behind the Model: Reconstructing the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition” at the Newberry Library (Chicago)
The Newberry Library’s Pictures from an Exposition: Visualizing the 1893 World's Fair includes a series of rich programs about the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. On Saturday, December 8, 2018, the Newberry will host “Behind the Model: Reconstructing the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition”. Dr. Lisa Snyder, of UCLA’s Office of Information Technology, will discuss the technology and research behind her rich computer reconstruction of the 1893 World Columbian Exposition’s White City. [...]
Tchaikovsky’s Tribute to Children for the 1893 World’s Fair
“Earth hold no music half so sweet as the laughter of a happy child.” -- Bertha Palmer in Fame's Tribute to Children (1893) On this day the world remembers the great Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (May 7, 1840 -- November 6, 1893), who died 125 years ago. Although he did not attend the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, he did provide a small musical gift to help [...]
Remembering William Eleroy Curtis, chairman of the Latin American Department
Today marks the anniversary of the birth of William Eleroy Curtis, born on November 5, 1850, in Akron, Ohio. Curtis served the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition as the chairman of the Latin American Department and representative of the State Department for the U.S. Government Exhibit. Curtis was a journalist and traveling correspondent for the Chicago Inter-Ocean and the Record-Herald newspapers and authored more than thirty books, many about his [...]
Election Day is Tuesday, November 6. Remember to Vote.
Just a friendly reminder from worldsfairchicago1893.com to exercise your right to vote this election day, November 6, 2018. "Miss Chicago Up to Date" showing a suffragette posing as the Statue of the Republic from the 1893 World's Fair. [Image from the August 11, 1913, issue of The Chicago Examiner.]
Dec. 4, 2018: “Christmas at the Fair: The Joffrey’s New Nutcracker” at the Newberry Library (Chicago)
The Newberry Library’s Pictures from an Exposition: Visualizing the 1893 World's Fair includes a series of rich programs about the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. On Tuesday, December 4, 2018, the Newberry will host “Christmas at the Fair: The Joffrey's New Nutcracker”. A special conversation with Alison Hinderliter, Ashley Wheater, and Hedy Weiss about the Joffrey Ballet’s 2018 production of The Nutcracker, set during the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The lecture [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – Machinery Hall (p. 68)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 68 – MACHINERY HALL MACHINERY HALL.—One of the most elaborate structures of the Columbian Exposition, Machinery Hall, or the Palace of Mechanic Art as it was termed officially, fully justified by its general effect the attention paid to ornamental details. The genius who achieved the lesser thing so well did not fail in the greater. Located at the south [...]
Dec. 1-30, 2018: Joffrey Ballet’s World’s Fair “Nutcracker” (Chicago)
Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet once again will stage their spectacular production of The Nutcracker, with story set on the fairgrounds of 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Performances run from December 1 to 30 at the Auditorium Theater. This new ballet by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, which premiered in 2016, invites the audience to … “journey inside Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair with Wheeldon’s critically acclaimed holiday masterpiece. When young Marie and her mother, a sculptress who [...]