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The Beauty Adapt "Kind of 'Game of Thrones in Its Scale": Ryan Murphy

Ryan Murphy offered some insights into his upcoming FX series adaptation of Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley's comic book series The Beauty.

Published Thu, 03 Oct 2024 14:37:08 -0500

by Ray Flook

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Earlier this week, we learned that Ryan Murphy and Murphy Productions (FX's Grotesquerie, Netflix's Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, ABC's Doctor Odyssey) and FX were teaming up for a series adaptation of Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley's comic book series The Beauty. Co-created, written, and executive-produced by Murphy and Matt Hodgson, the project has some pretty big names attached – Evan Peters, Anthony Ramos, Jeremy Pope, and Ashton Kutcher (with Peters, Ramos, and Pope also executive-producing). With production on the 11-episode first season expected to kick off this fall, Murphy offered Variety some insights into what attracted him to the story and his reasons for taking on an adaptation that Murphy sees as mirroring our modern times.

"It's something I've never done before, which is a sci-fi medical show about a new virus that mutates and it's sexually transmitted, that turns you into your absolute perfect self. And the question is, how far would you go to be beautiful? What would you sacrifice to that, and does that matter?" Murphy shared. "That show was looking at, I call it the Ozempic culture. One little shot, and suddenly, you're going to look better and feel better, and all your problems are going to go away. But what are you really working on? What's going on with you that you feel you need to do that? Sometimes it is health; sometimes it's vanity."

Though noting that his adaptation of The Beauty was written with Peters and Pope in mind, Murphy also shared that he's looking forward to the chance to finally work with Ramos and Kutcher. As for the series itself? Well, it sounds like viewers should be thinking in terms of "epic" – like a certain HBO and George RR Martin series. "It's very different,' Murphy added. "It shoots in Europe — Venice, Rome and Paris. It's a very big budget, kind of "Game of Thrones" in its scale."

Originally published in 2015, here's a look at the official overview from the Image Comics website: "Modern society is obsessed with outward beauty. What if there was a way to guarantee you could become more and more beautiful every day? What if it was a sexually transmitted disease? In the world of 'The Beauty,' physical perfection is attainable. The vast majority of the population has taken advantage of it, but Detectives Foster and Vaughn will soon discover it comes at a terrible price." Deadline Hollywood reports that a search is currently underway for a female lead, meaning that she could be teaming with either Peters, Ramos, Pope, or Kutcher as Detectives Kara Vaughn and Drew Foster (though DH's reporting sees Peters as the co-lead, adding that Kutcher is reportedly playing a tech billionaire). Produced by 20th Television in association with Ryan Murphy Television, the FX series will be executive-produced by Murphy, Hodgson, Peters, Ramos, Pope, Alexis Martin Woodall, Eric Kovtun, Scott Robertson, Nissa Diederich, and Eric Gitter.

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