Month: September 2016

Jakob Verbruggen replaces Cary Fukunaga as Director for The Alienist TV Series

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Jakob VerbruggenDeadline reported earlier today that Jakob Verbruggen (The Fall, London Spy, House of Cards) will be replacing Cary Fukunaga (True Detective) as director for The Alienist TV series, set to air on TNT. It has also been revealed that the shooting location has moved again–this time, from New York to Budapest–with filming scheduled to begin in early 2017.

The TV drama series, first announced by Paramount Television and Anonymous Content in April/May of 2014, is said to have had a rocky development road, with Paramount TV and TNT going “back and forth” on a budget over the past year as the filming location was moved from Montreal to New York before finally settling on Budapest. Although Cary Fukunaga will no longer be directing the series, Deadline reports that he has written all episodes of the series, and will be retaining a role as executive producer. It is also reported that Eric Roth, Hossein Amini, and Anonymous Content’s Steve Golin and Rosalie Swedlin will be retaining their roles as executive producers.

Speaking about the decision to bring Jakob Verbruggen on board as director, Sarah Aubrey, the EVP of original programming for TNT, stated: “Jakob will capture the intensity of this edge-of-your-seat thriller. The Alienist’s unique setting and characters, along with its pervasively tense and unsettling mood, couldn’t be in better hands.”

Another Interview with Caleb Carr

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Caleb CarrCaleb Carr appeared a podcast with James Altucher earlier this week. During their hour long discussion, the pair touched on numerous different topics ranging from Mr. Carr’s childhood through to his latest novel Surrender, New York. They also discussed the process of writing, and touched on his methods when writing The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness. An excerpt from the interview appears below along with a link to the full podcast.

James Altucher (JA): “So, fast forwarding, you did a bunch of best-selling novels. You also did a lot of nonfiction books about military history, terrorism; you’ve done a ton of essays. I recommend people read all of them actually, because they’re all so intelligent. But I do want to get to Surrender, New York. Why now? Why is this … the first time you’re doing a contemporary thriller set in modern times? You’ve done future, you’ve done past — you haven’t done now.”

Caleb Carr (CC): “Two reasons. I reached a point in my life where I wanted to write something that would give people really close insight into my life without it being blatant. I wanted to return to that idea. Get a little closer than the Alienist books did. And also, I’m now going to do two more Alienist books.”

JA: “A sequel and a prequel, right?”

CC: “A sequel and a prequel, right. And they’re both going to be told by Kreizler.”

JA: “Which is different than The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness.”

CC: “Right, and I needed to find a way to speak in the voice of what’s always considered the man behind the curtain in these things. Like Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle wrote one story told by Sherlock Holmes — terrible failure. But Kreizler’s a very different character. I wanted to find a way to speak about these matters — about all the things we’ve been discussing, these psychological matters and personal matters — in a way that would make people comfortable … so it didn’t sound like a case file, so it didn’t sound like a scientific study. So it gave you insight into the character because people really are fascinated by Kreizler. They want to know what gives with this guy.”

You can listen to the full interview on James Altucher’s website.