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HBO is developing a limited series based on Gillian Flynn’s novel “Dark Places.” Variety has learned exclusively.
Flynn will be co-creator, writer and co-showrunner on the project and owns the rights to the novel. Brett Johnson will also serve as co-showrunner, co-creator and writer, with Guerrin Gardner also credited as co-creator and writer. Theresa Kang and Caroline Garity of Blue Marble Pictures will executive produce alongside Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi of Iervolino & Lady Bacardi Entertainment.
“Dark Places” was originally published in 2009. The official logline description reads:
“Libby Day was seven years old when her mother and two sisters were murdered in the famous ‘Kinnakee, Kansas, Sacrifice to Satan’ of 1985. She survived and testified that her teenage brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, a pair of mother-daughter true crime ‘detectives’ track down an adult Libby and question her for more details, believing Ben to be innocent. Libby, having spent her youth working on the talk show circuit, hopes to return to profit from her tragic story: she will reconnect with that night’s players and report her findings, paying a fee. As Libby’s search takes her from rundown Missouri strip clubs to abandoned tourist traps in Oklahoma, an unimaginable truth emerges and Libby finds herself back where she started: on the run from a killer.
If the project moves forward, it would be the last film adaptation of one of Flynn’s novels. He previously worked with HBO on the limited series version of “Sharp Objects,” starring Amy Adams and which was nominated for multiple Emmy Awards. The most famous is Flynn’s novel “Gone Girl,” which was adapted into the hit film of the same name starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, with Flynn writing the screenplay. His other on-screen credits include “Utopia” on Amazon and the feature film “Widows.”
Johnson and Gardner have been married for more than 10 years. Johnson previously co-created the Emmy-winning Showtime limited series “Escape at Dannemora,” in which Gardner appeared on screen. Johnson has also written for shows such as “Ray Donovan,” “Mad Men” and the Hulu limited series “Candy.” Gardner has written several short films such as “Chowchilla” and “Blind on Blind.”
Flynn is represented by WME, Levine/Greenberg/Rostan Literary Agency, Blue Marble Management and Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Johnson is repped by UTA and Yorn Levine. Gardner is represented by Vanguard Management Group.
(Pictured, left to right: Gillian Flynn, Brett Johnson, Guerrin Gardner)