With the runaway success of the American Horror Story anthology series, CEO, FX Networks and FX Productions John Landgraf announced the new companion series American Crime Story. The new anthology series will focus on some of the biggest true crimes and will begin with one of the most famous cases ever, the trial of O.J. Simpson. The network has given a straight-to-series order to American Crime Story: The People Vs. O.J. Simpson and it will consist of 10 episodes.
The first installment, American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, is based on the book The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson by Jeffrey Toobin. Murphy joins Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson (The Hunger Games, Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and Brad Falchuk (Glee, American Horror Story, co-created with Murphy) as Executive Producers of American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, alongside writers Alexander and Karaszewski. Dante Di Loreto also serves as an Executive Producer, with Murphy set to direct. The first two hours of the miniseries will be written by Golden Globe-winning screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (The People vs. Larry Flynt, Ed Wood, Man on the Moon), who are Executive Producers of ‘ACS: O.J.’. Production begins early next year in Los Angeles. It is produced by FXP and Fox 21, the companies that co-produce the long-running hit series Sons of Anarchy for the network.
Just like American Horror Story, each season of the new series will tackle a different true crime story.
“Time and time again, Ryan Murphy has transformed the medium of television by redefining genres and formats as he did with Nip/Tuck, Glee and the American Horror Story franchise, and we expect the same of American Crime Story,” said Landgraf. “Scott and Larry have adapted Jeffrey Toobin’s book into a masterful 10-hour piece. I have no doubt that Ryan and his partners, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, Brad Falchuk, and Dante Di Loreto are going to make something very memorable here – and that it will be a spectacular first entry in what is destined to become a series of great true crime-based miniseries.”
“This is an exciting project for me,” commented Murphy, “as I’ve been looking for the right property which could serve as an extension of the American Horror Story brand I love so much. The O.J. case was as tragic as it was fascinating – it seemed like everyone had a stake in the outcome. It was really the beginning of the modern tabloid age.”
The new season of American Horror Story: Freak Show premieres tomorrow night on FX.