The Shards is Bret Easton Ellis’s most recent novel and his most autobiographical work to date. Now, it has been adapted as a television series.
The psychological horror series will arrive on Disney+ in early August, with new episodes released each week. The cast includes Igby Rigney as the young Bret Easton Ellis, while Homer Gere plays Robert Mallory, the mysterious new student at the elite prep school Bret attends.
The character of Susan Reynolds is played by Kaia Gerber. Gerber is the daughter of supermodel Cindy Crawford and businessman Rande Gerber, while Homer Gere is the son of actors Richard Gere and Carey Lowell. In the early 1990s, Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford were married for four years before the birth of their children.
The rest of the cast includes Graham Campbell as Thom Wright, Hayes Warner as Debbie Schaffer, Wes Bentley as Terry Schaffer, Evan Rachel Wood as Liz Schaffer and Jordan Roth as Steven Reinhardt.
The Shards was initially serialised by Ellis as an audiobook through his podcast before being published as a novel in 2023. The story follows a group of teenagers at an elite Los Angeles prep school against the backdrop of a serial killer targeting young women.
Bret Easton Ellis is best known for novels including American Psycho, Less Than Zero, Glamorama, The Informers, Lunar Park, The Rules of Attraction and Imperial Bedrooms. Several of his works have previously been adapted for film.
Ellis took a long break from fiction between the release of Imperial Bedrooms in 2010 and The Shards in 2023. At around 590 pages, it is his longest novel. The television series is being produced by Ellis alongside prolific producer Ryan Murphy.
