Hulu’s Devil In The White City also loses director Todd Field

Things aren’t going especially well in 1890s Chicago, and not just because of serial killer H.H. Holmes and his funky Murder Castle: Just a few days after losing star Keanu Reeves, Hulu’s adaptation of Erik Larson’s best-selling book The Devil In The White City has also lost director Todd Field (according to Variety). Set around the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago and focusing on the dual storylines of architect Daniel H. Burnham and aforementioned murderer H.H. Holmes, the highly anticipated adaptation seems to be settling into development hell with these recent departures.

The book was first published in 2003, and the adaptation rights have been a hot commodity in Hollywood pretty much ever since then. They eventually landed in Leonardo DiCaprio’s lap in 2010, with him planning to star in a movie version as Holmes, and Martin Scorsese even signed on later to direct. When that never came to fruition, the adaptation moved to television with DiCaprio and Scorsese producing. Now, having lost its star and director in a matter of days, it seems more unlikely than ever that the adaptation is actually going to happen any time soon. Who knows, maybe it’ll become a movie again and DiCaprio and Scorsese will decide to star and direct.

As for Reeves and Field, the former is going to play John Constantine again for a sequel to his underrated (or maybe under-appreciated… under-something, certainly) 2005 comic book movie, while the latter is collecting some Oscar buzz for directing Cate Blanchett in TÁR. They’ll both be fine, even without what probably would’ve been a prestigious Hulu series. Or maybe the show had some issue behind the scenes that led to these departures, and they’re better off for having left the project.