Once again, Cary Fukunaga is teaming with True Detective producer Anonymous Content to make a show about murder. The Alienist, based on Caleb Carr’s bestselling novel of same name, is unfortunately not about an aficionado of little green men who probe unsuspecting farmers in the night. Instead, it follows Laszlo Kreizler, a doctor living in New York City in 1896, who uses the emerging discipline of psychology to track down one of the city’s first serial killers. Along the way, he enlists the help of John Moore, a newspaper reporter, and police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt (yes, that Theodore Roosevelt). Fukunaga will direct the event series, which will be written by Hossein Amini (The Two Faces Of January) and executive produced by Eric Roth (Forrest Gump).
Anonymous Content’s Steve Golin and Rosalie Swedlin, who will also executive produce the series, said, “The multi-episodic format will enable us to do justice to the complexity of Caleb Carr’s storytelling and his vivid and detailed portrait of late 19th century New York in all its splendor and grittiness.” Fukunaga and Anonymous most recently worked together on the feature film Beasts Of No Nation, about child soldiers in Africa. Fukunaga also will be directing a feature film based on Stephen King’s IT, a story about a shape-shifting clown who eats kids which starts production this summer. Basically, Fukunaga has clearly defined his comfort zone as everyone else’s waking nightmares.