'True Detective' Director Will Make TV Series 'The Alienist'
True Detective director Carey Fukunaga will direct and adapt the Caleb Carr novel 'The Alienist' as TV series. The show is a period thriller set in New York City, with Fukunaga and Eric Roth will executive producing, along with Hossein Amini (Drive) writing the pilot script and also serving as executive producer. Paramount Television and Anonymous Content LLP are producing the show.
Set in the tenements and mansions of Gilded Age New York City, Caleb Carr’s 1994 novel The Alienist tells the story of Dr. Laszlo Kreizler who, with the help of newspaper reporter John Moore and police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt, uses the emerging discipline of psychology to track down one of New York City’s first serial killers.
Paramount Television President Amy Powell said, "The Alienist is a fascinating and distinctive, fast-paced psychological thriller that is wonderfully evocative of the unrivalled Gilded Age of New York City. Cary Fukunaga’s unique vision and ability to render compelling, distinctive and superbly atmospheric direction is the perfect voice for this television series. We are thrilled to have not only Cary’s expert direction, but also the creativity, imagination and storytelling abilities of the supremely talented Eric Roth and Hossein Amini.
UPDATE: TNT is said to have made a whopping $5 million-an-episode deal for the eight-part series, a clear signal to the industry that TNT is ready to spend.
