Oh, Bret Easton Ellis. You old lightning rod. The Gen X nihilist known for anchoring the literary Brat Pack and depicting depraved superficial youth is shifting his talents to television. With the help of—who else?—our favorite chaos agent, Ryan Murphy.
The Shards is a haute drama slasher series, based on Ellis’s 2023 novel. Set against the vivid backdrop of LA in the 80s, the series follows a group of privileged high school seniors at an elite prep school as they navigate identity, sex, jealousy, obsession and some particularly American violence.
Take a gander at the sleek, unsettling trailer below.
Ellis is no stranger to Hollywood. His novels American Psycho and Less Than Zero received buzzy adaptations in the 1990s, cementing the writer’s place as precocious bard of the unraveling elite.
Murphy, who’s also known for dark hearted pulp, feels like a natural collaborative fit. “I’ve always loved, borderline worshipped, Bret’s work,” he told Vogue earlier this week. “We’re pretty much the same age, and I grew up with [his books]. He’s interested in the things I’m interested in.”
This all bodes well for stage magic purposes. And it may help that The Shards stars a murderer’s row of fresh talents.
Of the known entities, Kaia Gerber helms our troubled kids, as a mysterious student body class president. She’s joined by Millennials (Evan Rachel Wood, the theatre producer Jordan Roth), and a fresh class of newcomers and nepo babies—Homer Gere, among them.
The kids certainly aren’t alright. But I’m curious to see how they’ll unravel, this time around.
