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At Monday night’s New York premiere of FX’s upcoming horror drama The Shards, one name was on nearly everyone’s lips: Ryan Murphy. The prolific creator was quickly cited by the show’s cast, from the young actors playing the privileged teens at the center of the series to Broadway producer Jordan Roth, as being key to their desire to be part of the project.
But not far behind Murphy on the list of factors drawing actors to The Shards was the book of the same name and its author Bret Easton Ellis.
“I’m a huge Bret Easton Ellis fan and when this book came out, I read it immediately and read it over and over again,” Kaia Gerber said. “Then when I heard Ryan was doing it, I’m also the biggest fan of Ryan. He gave me my first ever job. When he told me he got the rights to it, I just got chills and teared up.”
Though Ellis’ semi-autobiographical novel, released in 2023, was key to helping the cast understand their characters, Ellis himself has been only lightly involved with the series by selling the book to Murphy and penning a draft of the first two episodes, which Murphy also worked on. The author, who also serves as an executive producer on the show, wasn’t at Monday’s premiere and hasn’t been heavily involved in promoting the show, which is set for an Aug. 5 release.
After a previous adaptation of The Shards at HBO fell apart over creative differences, Ellis indicated he was done with future screen versions of his novel. “I really felt like eight months of the year had been wasted,” Ellis said in January of the “frustrating” development process. “I said, ‘Never again; I’m never going to do this again.’ ”
“He took a very godfather-y, hands-off approach,” executive producer and longtime Murphy collaborator Brad Simpson told The Hollywood Reporter at the Shards premiere. “He gave us some guiding light from the beginning and sort of said, ‘Go with God. Go make your show.’ It was great to have those initial conversations with him, but he has let Ryan and his team do what they do so well, which is produce the TV show.”
While Gerber had met Ellis prior to joining The Shards, she “didn’t see Bret at all while we were filming,” she told THR. Still, she said she tried to remain loyal to the book’s portrayal of Susan Reynolds and that the series “incites the same feeling, which I think is the most important thing.”
Co-star Hayes Warner echoed this sentiment, saying that everything Murphy did to create the series was done to honor the book.
“He has so much respect for Bret, and that book is such a masterpiece,” Warner said. “The world of the show, everything about the show is from the book and in honor of Bret.”
Numerous castmembers, including star Igby Rigney, who plays the lead role of the fictionalized Bret Ellis, said that Murphy was their conduit to the author.
Rigney admitted he “didn’t have any” consultation with the real-life Ellis, but shared, “Bret consulted with Ryan a bunch, and then Ryan was there to hold my hand and guide me through that particular element of it.”
He said he was able to understand his character through his work with Murphy and the script.
“We did sort of have a line of communication from Bret to Ryan and Ryan to us,” Daniel Dale, who plays fellow student Ryan Vaugn, told THR, adding that he hadn’t personally met Ellis.
Still Ellis has signed off of the first two episodes, co-star Graham Campbell confirmed.
“I didn’t get to meet Bret personally, but I know that he saw the first two episodes, and he gave us his stamp of approval, and that meant a lot to us,” he said.
Speaking about his and The Shards team’s approach to crafting the series, Campbell added, “I think we ended up taking the best of what had already been put on the page and developing it into something that was exciting to us and it landed somewhere that I think we’re all pretty proud of.”
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