Earlier today, The Hollywood Reporter ran an advanced story about the upcoming series American Crime Story, set to debut Feb. 2 on FX. Lumped under the American Horror Story banner only by title and the involvement of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk as executive producers, the true-crime dramatization anthology is really the brainchild of the Scott Alexander-Larry Karaszewski writing team. They’re the pens behind Ed Wood and Man on the Moon, as well as, in more recent years, Big Eyes and Goosebumps. It has Cuba Gooding Jr. yelling things as O.J. Simpson and John Travolta looking as he does in the image above, so even in the worst case, it’s going to be a spectacle of the first order.
But THR‘s piece also contains a breaking revelation concerning what the program (which will be operating without the Alexander/Karaszewski brain trust) has lined up for season two. The already-ordered second season will shift focus to Katrina-ravaged New Orleans, surveying the horrifying human damage wrought by the hurricane. The article quotes Ryan Murphy detailing an audacious structure for the next go-round:
Murphy says the working plan is to follow a group of six to eight people in an attempt to examine all sides of the tragedy, from the Superdome in New Orleans to the hospital to those who were put on buses and dropped off with babies who had to wear trash bags for multiple days. “I want this show to be a socially conscious, socially aware examination of different types of crime around the world,” he says on a rare quiet afternoon in his L.A. office in mid-December. “And in my opinion, Katrina was a f—ing crime — a crime against a lot of people who didn’t have a strong voice, and we’re going to treat it as a crime. That’s what this show is all about.”
The shameful bungling of Katrina relief by FEMA and other governmental agencies remains one of the darkest chapters of post-millennial America, and there will surely be no shortage of drama for Murphy to mine — with the utmost respect and delicacy for which he is known, of course. The most pressing question remaining is how John Travolta will fit into all of this, and more specifically, what measures can be taken to ensure that he will have a frightening and unnatural face. Perhaps the show’s makeup department can use makeup to contour his cheekbones and give him an inhumanly gaunt appearance. That’d be a fun time.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
