Keanu Reeves Set To Star In Hulu's 'Devil In The White City' Adaptation

CHICAGO, IL — Keanu Reeves is set to star in a limited series adaptation of “Devil in the White City” for Hulu.

The show will be based on Erik Larson’s 2003 bestseller, "The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America,” which chronicled prolific killer H.H. Holmes' crimes during the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

Reeves, most famous for roles in films such as “The Matrix” and “John Wick,” will play famed Chicago architect Daniel H. Burnham, the visionary behind the titular “White City” — the white buildings at the fair.

In 2019, news broke that actor Leonardo DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese had plans to bring Larson's book to the streaming service after DiCaprio acquired the rights to it about a decade earlier. DiCaprio originally planned to adapt it as a film in which he would star as Holmes, with Scorsese directing.

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Both DiCaprio and Scorsese are among the executive producers listed in the recent announcement about the series, but Reeves is the only acting talent disclosed so far, and Todd Field is set to direct. The series will be written by Sam Shaw, who co-created the Hulu horror series “Castle Rock,” set in the Stephen King multiverse.

The streaming service was unable to give an air date or release timeline for “Devil in the White City” as of Friday, other than to say it was “a ways off.”

Holmes, born Herman Webster Mudgett, admitted to committing more than two dozen murders — mainly targeting women who had traveled to Chicago to find work during the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. The crimes were carried out in his so-called "Murder Castle" at 63rd Street and Wallace Avenue in the Englewood neighborhood.

The "Murder Castle" is long gone, demolished in 1938, and a U.S. post office is now located close to the site. Holmes was arrested, tried and hanged in 1896 in Philadelphia.