Keanu Reeves and director depart Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese Hulu series

Keanu Reeves and director depart Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese Hulu series
Cast member Keanu Reeves poses at a special screening of John Wick in Los Angeles, California, on Oct 22, 2014.
PHOTO: Reuters

Things haven’t exactly gotten off on a good foot for Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese’s The Devil in the White City series. Two months after Keanu Reeves was confirmed to lead the Hulu adaption, Variety has reported that the Matrix favourite will no longer be involved.

Sources say the streamer is already searching for a replacement star to lead the drama, which has also lost director Todd Field (Little Children, Tár). Based on the book of the same name by Erik Larson, it has been in various stages of development for more than a decade, and at one point, was considered for a stint as a feature film.

The show was officially ordered to series at Hulu in early August, with a logline that reads, “The Devil in the White City tells the true story of Daniel H. Burnham, a demanding but visionary architect who races to make his mark on history with the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and Dr. H. H. Holmes, America’s first modern serial killer and the man behind the notorious Murder Castle built in the Fair’s shadow.”

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Reeves was slated to play Burnham, which would have been his first major American television role. No one has been cast as Holmes just yet — DiCaprio was previously attached to the role when the project was envisioned as a movie adaption back in 2010, but is not expected to appear onscreen in this series.

DiCaprio is serving as executive producer alongside his Appian Way partner Jennifer Davisson, Martin Scorsese, Stacey Sher, Sam Shaw, and Mark Lafferty. Sam Shaw is adapting the book for the screen and will also serve as showrunner. Neither a release date nor a formal episode count has been determined.

No reason was given for Reeves’ exit, though part of that can likely be attributed to his hectic schedule.

The actor will be making a return to John Wick: Chapter 4 when it premieres on March 24, 2022, and is set to reprise his role in the sequel to Constantine. He has expressed interest in joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well, and was recently confirmed to star in the Phantom Liberty expansion of Cyberpunk 2077 on the video game front.

This article was first published in Geek Culture.

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