Hollywood star Keanu Reeves is no longer attached with Hulu's series adaptation of The Devil in the White City.
According to entertainment news outlet Variety, the actor has exited the project, which is executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and his frequent collaborator, filmmaker Martin Scorsese. The series, which would have marked Reeves' first major role on American television, is based on Erik Larson's 2003 book.
The reason behind Reeves' exit has not been ascertained. The Matrix Resurrections star was slated to play one of the two leads, Daniel H. Burnham, in the series.
The Devil in the White City tells the true story of two men, an architect and a serial killer, whose fates were forever linked by The Chicago World's Fair of 1893. "It follows Daniel H. Burnham, a brilliant and fastidious architect racing to make his mark on the world and Henry H. Holmes, a handsome and cunning doctor who fashioned his own pharmaceutical Murder Castle' on fair grouradhikands a palace built to seduce, torture and mutilate young women. The story takes the viewer on a tour of murder, romance and mystery in the gilded age, reads the official synopsis.
The big-budget project has been in development since DiCaprio bought the film rights to the book in 2010 and previously set it up as a feature at Paramount with Scorsese to direct.
In 2019, Hulu announced that it was working on the series adaptation of the book. Reeves had officially boarded the project in August this year. Sam Shaw is adapting the book for the screen and will serve as showrunner and executive producer on the show, which is now a co-production between Paramount Television Studios and Disney's ABC Signature.
Rick Yorn, Stacey Sher and Mark Lafferty will also executive produce alongside Scorsese, DiCaprio and his Appian Way partner, Jennifer Davisson.