HBO to adapt Bret Easton Ellis' horror novel The Shards

Violence, drugs, sex and a whole lot of horror is what Bret Easton Ellis' 2023 novel The Shards promises. After the book was published earlier this year, along with an audiobook, HBO is now planning a TV adaptation of the horror story.

In addition to Ellis, Nick Young (Immortal, Yes) and Brian Young (Fate: The Winx Saga, The Vampire Diaries) are working on the adaptation of The Shards. Ellis will also serve as executive producer and writer of the series.

The American author and director is known for his dark humour and the satirical language he uses in his works. The Shards, continues in this vein and is a fictionalised memoir of Ellis' final year of high school in Los Angeles in 1981. It marks the American Psycho author's first novel in 13 years.

In the 600-page novel, which is a blend of classic noir and fictional horror, young bisexual Bret Easton Ellis writes his first work, Less Than Zero. The novel's stereotypical teenage character takes drugs, has sex, and listens to New Wave.

After the murders of a serial killer have been reported in his hometown, the semi-fictional Ellis and his friends start to investigate who the murderer could be. Eventually, they find themselves being stalked and terrorised by the killer.

However, it's not the first time author Ellis has mixed reality and fiction. The story in his ghost horror novel Lunar Park (2004) begins as if it could have come straight from the author's memoirs before abruptly transforming into a dark and twisted horror story about possession and a serial killer.

HBO's television adaptation of The Shard has a lot of potential and could become a true horror classic. So far, there is no word on a release date or a possible cast.

Happy publication day to the unforgettable #TheShards by @BretEastonEllis

'This could be, in the end, a dangerous game - someone will get hurt...'

Buy your copy: https://t.co/6Y12QltGjH
🎟️ London event: https://t.co/vEIZhtYLdM
🎟️ Oxford event: https://t.co/WmjzrqifdD pic.twitter.com/QQZ5ocWMns

— Swift Press (@_SwiftPress) January 17, 2023