Starring five-time Academy Award®-nominee Amy Adams, the critically acclaimed, tense psychological thriller Sharp Objects starts on M-Net channel 101 on DStv from Monday, 01 October at 22:05.
Based on the bestselling novel of the same name from Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn, the eight-episode limited series was created by Emmy® nominee Marti Noxon (UnREAL & Mad Men) and directed by Emmy® winner Jean-Marc Vallée (HBO’s Big Little Lies & Dallas Buyers Club) with scripts by Marti Noxon and Gillian Flynn.
Adams stars as reporter Camille Preaker, who returns to her small hometown to cover the murder of a preteen girl and the disappearance of another. While trying to put together a psychological puzzle from her past, she finds herself identifying with the young victims a bit too closely. The series was filmed in Los Angeles and Northern California, and in and around Atlanta.
“Sharp Objects is my first child, my first novel,” said author Gillian Flynn. “I wrote it nights and weekends and holidays with no real belief it would ever be published, because I felt like I had to bring this girl to life, so it holds a sacred place with me. It’s a strange and thrilling thing, bringing text to screen, allowing it to become a new thing while honouring readers’ interpretations too — it’s fun and a bit scary.
“This was my first novel, yet the last to reach screen — 12 long and often disappointing years,” Flynn continued. “But then Amy came along, and I thought, ‘Oh, that was it! Camille was waiting for Amy to play her.’ And that’s not lofty, writer talk. I really believe Camille needed Amy.”
Director Jean-Marc Vallée said, “It’s curious how we can find beauty in places we wouldn’t expect. How darkness sometimes can become attractive, comforting. This is what happened to me when I read Gillian’s novel. I got sucked into Camille’s head. I was falling for this character. Never met, never seen, nor heard anyone like this before. I was fascinated by her obsession with words, the way she uses them to define herself, to heal and to harm, and her way of describing the world, her way of talking about herself, her wounds and imperfections.
“What a unique voice, so raw, so dark, and yet so honest and vulnerable,” Vallée added. “That is Camille Preaker’s beauty, and Amy Adams. I feel grateful and fortunate to have witnessed the spectacular work of an actress who dared to play in the dark, with no safety net.”
Creator and showrunner Marti Noxon said: “When I first read this book, I remember thinking to myself, ‘I have to meet Gillian Flynn – she’s really screwed up like I am.’ This is a story that speaks to a part of women’s lives that we rarely address: our impulse to hurt ourselves and each other. And I feel like Camille is representative of so many women who have continually suppressed the damage that has been done to them throughout their lives, and how in an effort to avoid dealing with the root of our issues we inflict pain onto ourselves, in various forms. It’s something I could personally relate to, and to see this character who is deeply flawed, but still incredibly brave in her search for the truth, was part of why this story stayed with me for so long after reading it – and it was that lingering hold that made me want to adapt it into a series.”
The cast also includes: Patricia Clarkson (the Maze Runner series, Six Feet Under), Chris Messina (The Mindy Project, The Newsrooom), Eliza Scanlen (Home and Away), Elizabeth Perkins (This Is Us, HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm) and Matt Craven (X-Men, Justified), along with Henry Czerny (Quantico, When We Rise), Miguel Sandoval (Station 19, Medium), Taylor John Smith (Cruel Intentions, American Crime), Sophia Lillis (It) and Madison Davenport (From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series).
Is Darkness really attractive and comforting? Find out this Monday 1 October at 22:05 only on M-Net channel 101.
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