Gillian Flynn’s SHARP OBJECTS Being Adapted As TV Series From Marti Noxon

Gillian Flynn's first novel, Sharp Objects, is - in my opinion - her best. It's sort of seedy, and the protagonist's family are like if John Waters wrote a V.C. Andrews novel. It's soapy in a deranged way, but it's also incredibly compelling. Flynn's other two novels - Gone Girl and Dark Places - are already being adapted into films, so it was only a matter of time before someone picked up Sharp Objects.

Deadline reports that eOne Television has optioned the book, with Marti Noxon as the showrunner and head writer on the drama series. I don't think this can run for more than one season - it would probably be smart to do it as a one-off miniseries event instead.

The story follows reporter Camille Preaker, who, after being released from a psychiatric institution, returns to her hometown to stay with her wackadoo mother, her mom's boyfriend and the half-sister she barely knows while investigating the deaths of two young girls. Camille teams up with a cop to try to solve the murders, and at the same time she's struggling to confront the truth about her family and her past, which is sending her mind over the edge.

It's one of Flynn's better protagonists, though she still has that judgmental streak that I find kind of annoying in the women in her books. It's not that I mind them being difficult and flawed mean girl types, but I just don't think it's necessary to have the female protagonists in all of your novels insist on mentioning how they think other women are ugly or fat. I think you can illustrate their flaws in more creative ways, rather than just showing us that they're obviously troubled because they're shallow. And other than that, Flynn writes her characters very well - it's just this one little nitpick that keeps me from fully loving them.

But with awesome writer Marti Noxon on board, whose previous television credits include Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Mad Men, and who also penned the script for the underrated Fright Night remake, this seems like a promising series. Noxon and Flynn should make one really clever and engaging team, with Flynn on board to produce and help oversee the series.