Apple TV+ Drops 'Bonfire Of The Vanities' Series — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Apple TV+ opted not to proceed with the series adaptation of Tom Wolfe's 1987 novel after months of development, with sources saying the parties were not creatively aligned and that David E. Kelley was unhappy with how the project was handled.
- Warner Bros. Television and David E. Kelley Productions will shop the package to other buyers shortly; Matt Reeves remains set to direct.
- Kelley stays in business with Apple TV on two other series: Margo's Got Money Troubles, which recently landed eight Emmy nominations, and Presumed Innocent, a four-time Emmy nominee last year.
- The project marks Kelley's second Tom Wolfe adaptation after creating and executive producing Netflix's 2024 limited series A Man in Full, which starred Jeff Daniels and Diane Lane.
- Kelley and Matthew Tinker executive produce for David E. Kelley Productions, while Reeves and Sarah Geismer executive produce for 6th and Idaho Productions.
- Wolfe's novel explores greed, avarice, and racial divisions between the haves and have-nots in 1980s New York City; the 1990 Brian De Palma film adaptation starring Tom Hanks was a high-profile commercial and critical failure.
Why it matters: A prestige package combining a best-selling source novel, an Emmy-pedigreed showrunner, and a blockbuster film director couldn't clear development at a streamer that simultaneously renewed Kelley's two other shows — a creative-misalignment split that points to friction over creative control rather than appetite for the IP. Any new buyer inherits a famously difficult-to-adapt novel, and the 1990 De Palma film's commercial and critical failure looms as a cautionary precedent for whoever picks it up.
Ask SkimNews
