Fans of Gone Girl have anxiously awaited the arrival of author Gillian Flynn’s latest onscreen adaptation, Sharp Objects and many of them were in the crowd for HBO’s premiere of the limited series at the ATX Television Festival on Thursday.
From Jean-Marc Vallée, director of Big Little Lies, Sharp Objects bears several striking resemblances to his Emmy-winning series, including stunning cinematography by Yves Bélanger, and of course a killer soundtrack which seamlessly integrates into the storyline. Executive producer Amy Adams stars as Camille Preaker, a reporter weighed by the scars of her past, who returns to her hometown of Windgap to investigate a string of murders. Preaker’s reluctance to return to her past signifies the depth of the wounds she’s left behind, and viewers quickly learn why in the first episode, titled “Vanish.”
Fans of the book are sure to spot significant differences in the show, including the addition of Camille’s attachment to her Evian bottle filled with Absolut Vodka. In a post-screening Q&A, showrunner Marti Noxon explained that many of the significant character changes hailed from the personal attachment she felt to Camille’s character when she read the book. “I’ve struggled with eating disorders and alcoholism on and off throughout my life, and there was something about the way Camille hid her pain that it was so intrepid and I found that so moving.”
The panel of creators and directors said the book’s adoption into a limited series rather than a movie was a carefully considered decision which took a year and a half to finalize. Adams said, “If you go back and read Sharp Objects, the internal monologue of Camille is almost impossible to capture in 90 minutes.”
Sharp Objects premieres on July 8 at 9PM on HBO.
This article appears in June 8 • 2018.