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You may have heard about the beach that makes you old, but have you heard about the STI that makes you gorgeous — and then dead?
FX has officially greenlit Ryan Murphy’s next series, The Beauty, which will begin production in November, according to Deadline. The show is based on the 2016 graphic novel of the same name about an STI that turns anyone who acquires it beautiful. However, the illness, which is called “the Beauty,” also kills its host as part of a government plot.
The stars attached to the project include Murphy mainstay Evan Peters, who recently won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in Murphy’s controversial Netflix hit Dahmer: Monster — The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Also attached are In the Heights’ Anthony Ramos, Tony-nominated actor and singer Jeremy Pope (of the 2020 miniseries Hollywood), and Dude, Where’s My Car? star Ashton Kutcher.
Although details of Murphy’s adaptation are are under wraps, the original graphic novel follows detectives Drew Foster and Kara Vaughn as they solve “beauty crime cases” and dodge federal agents. The series will have both a male and a female lead, per Deadline, and the network is currently looking for an actress to join the cast.
The book tackles society’s obsession with physical beauty, per a description on Image Comics’ website. “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?” the description reads. “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.”
The Beauty is the latest in a long list of programming that Murphy is delivering under his overall deal with Disney, which began in 2023. Murphy is also behind the ABC show Doctor Odyssey, as well as the new FX horror series Grotesquerie, both of which premiered last month, and the upcoming Kim Kardashian-produced legal drama All’s Fair. Though Murphy exited his Netflix deal — reportedly worth up to $300 million — for Disney, the streamer still hosts his series Monsters, which recently debuted its latest season about The Menéndez Brothers.
Since Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story debuted, it has garnered significant controversy for its depiction of an incestuous romantic relationship between the brothers. Robert Rand, who wrote the 2018 book The Menéndez Murders, called the depiction a “fantasy” to The Hollywood Reporter.
Murphy responded to the backlash shortly after the series’ release by saying that he had an “obligation” to depict multiple viewpoints.
“What the show is doing is presenting the points of view and theories from so many people who were involved in the case,” he told Entertainment Tonight. “Dominick Dunne wrote several articles talking about that theory. We are presenting his point of view just as we present Leslie Abramson’s point of view. We had an obligation to show all of that, and we did.”
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