On Monday, January 3, it became known that the star of the popular film franchises "The Matrix" and "John Wick" Keanu Reeves may join the cast of the multi-part film adaptation of Eric Larson's bestseller "The Devil in the White City".

As noted by Deadline, this project will be the first notable work of an actor in an American TV series.

The Devil in the White City is a historical non-fiction book presented in the style of a novel. The work is divided into four parts, each of which is set in the United States. The first three are devoted to events in Chicago in the first half of the 1890s. In particular, in 1893, a large-scale World Exhibition took place there, which had a serious impact on America's position in the world. The fourth part takes readers to Philadelphia in 1895.

In the center of the plot of the book are two men.

The first is the architect Daniel Hudson Burnham, the construction manager of the exhibition, the designer of a number of famous objects in the United States.

Among them is the famous Flatiron Building in Manhattan.

The second key character is the medic and serial killer Henry Holmes.

He opened a hotel where he killed guests.

It is known that the building had many secret passages and corridors, a gas chamber, a dissection table and a crematorium.

Holmes sold the skeletons of his victims to medical institutions.

Other real people also appear in the work.

Among them are the inventor Thomas Edison, Archduke of Austria Franz Ferdinand and the military and showman Buffalo Bill, whose history has already become the mainstream of a number of paintings.

“Relentlessly weaves an entertaining element into the true story to give this non-fiction book the drama of a true novel ... There is nothing wrong with the fact that the truth seems even stranger than fiction,” - said in a review of The New York Times.

The film adaptation of Eric Larson's work was initiated by Leonardo DiCaprio - he bought the rights back in 2010.

The actor is expected to play Henry Holmes.

As with Reeves, DiCaprio's role in the film adaptation of The Devil in the White City will be the first notable work on the series.

Previously, the artist participated in the filming of several serial projects at the dawn of his career.

In them, he played minor characters.

Leonardo DiCaprio is also producing the new project with Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese.

Previously, filmmakers worked on such popular films as "The Wolf of Wall Street", "Isle of the Damned", "The Departed", "Gangs of New York", "Aviator".

Producers also include Rick Yorn (The Aviator, The Wolf of Wall Street), Emma Tillinger Koskoff (The Wolf of Wall Street, The Departed), Jennifer Davisson (The Survivor, Robin Hood: The Beginning) ) and Stacy Sher (Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained).

It is currently known that the first two episodes of the series will be directed by Todd Field.

His past directing projects include the drama Like Little Children and the fantasy series Carnival.

The series will be released on the Hulu video service.

  • Daniel Hudson Burnham and Henry Holmes

  • © Getty Images / murderpedia.org

The film adaptation of "The Devil in the White City" will be the first art project dedicated to the stories of Daniel Hudson Burnham and Henry Holmes, but both characters have already been mentioned in a number of films.

So, Burnham's name sounds in the series "How I Met Your Mother."

Also, a reference to him is present in one of the episodes of the series "The Handmaid's Tale".  

Henry Holmes became the prototype for James March, one of the heroes of the American Horror Story series.

He was played by actor Evan Peters ("X-Men: Days of Future Past").

The hero, like Holmes, owns a hotel with many secret passages.

There, March commits numerous murders for the sake of entertainment.

The ghost of Henry Holmes appears in one of the episodes of the TV series Supernatural.

In the story, he continues to kill in a residential building built on the site of the hero's execution.

Dean and Sam Winchesters manage to save the girls abducted by the ghost and get rid of him.

Also Henry Holmes, played by Joel Johnstone (Agents of SHIELD), is featured in Timeless.