EXCLUSIVE: On the heels of the highly-rated People v. O.J. Simpson first installment of American Crime Story dominating the long-form Emmy categories with 10 wins, including best limited series, Ryan Murphy’s anthology series has been renewed for a third season by FX, I have learned.

Everyone is keeping mum on details but I understand that the title of the new 10-episode installment will be Versace/Cunanan and will examine the shocking July 1997 assassination of legendary designer Gianni Versace on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion by sociopath and serial killer Andrew Cunanan, who eight days later killed himself in a house boat as the Miami Dade police force moved in to capture him. Versace was his fifth and final victim.

Versace/Cunanan:American Crime Story, from Fox 21, will be based on the book “Vulgar Favors” by Vanity Fair writer Maureen Orth, with Tom Rob Smith set to write the first two and multiple subsequent episodes.

Versace/Cunanan will film virtually simultaneously with the second American Crime Story installment, Katrina, in early 2017. I hear that was not planned but happened when FX and Fox 21 executives read Smith’s first script and were so impressed, a decision was made to accelerate production on Season 3. Katrina, about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, will still air first, followed by Versace/Cunanan.

Murphy, who won an Emmy for directing the opening episode of People v. O.J. Simpson and is expected to helm the Katrina opener, will also direct the first episode of Versace/Cunanan, which I hear will film in Los Angeles and Miami next spring.

Also back for Versace/Cunanan are casting directors Nicole Daniels and Courtney Bright, who won an Emmy for The People v. O.J. Simpson. I hear the producers already are meeting with actors to play the title roles, and an A-list actress in negotiations to play Versace’s sister Donatella Versace, who is featured prominently in the story.

American Crime Story’s core producing team — Ryan Murphy, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson and Brad Falchuk — all Emmy winners for People v. O.J. Simpson as best limited series — will executive produce Versace/Cunanan alongside Smith.

American Crime Story continues to take a different angle on the true crime theme in each season while tackling famous cases — from a murder trial (People v. O.J.) to a human tragedy (Katrina) to a murder mystery (Versace/Cunanan). Cunanan’s motives to kill the famous designer were never established, with his suicide leaving the questions forever unanswered.

American Crime Story‘s Hurricane Katrina-themed second season has experienced something of a rain delay.

At the Television Critics Association winter press tour Thursday, FX president John Landgraf offered an update on the network’s long-gestating follow-up to Season 1’s super-successful People v. O.J. Simpson, which has yet to go into production. In fact, there’s been more buzz about Season 3’s Versace installment.

Landgraf revealed that the Katrina edition has been pushed until 2018 for creative reasons. “We had developed People v. O.J. and we had material in really good shape ready to go,” the exec explained. “We had scripts we were really excited about. We have really high ambitions for this. It’s about character and larger themes. It’s just taking time, frankly, to get material we’re happy with.

“Also, when you’re shooting in New Orleans, you have to worry about hurricanes,” Landgraf added. “You can only shoot there during certain times of the year.”

As a result of the delay, the Katrina and Versace installments will “air within about six months of each other” in 2018, said Landgraf. “We’ll end up having a long hiatus and then we’ll get back on cycle.”

“American Crime Story” is reuniting with author Jeffrey Toobin for a future season, Variety has confirmed.

“ACS” producers Fox 21 TV and FX Productions have together optioned Toobin’s book “A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President” for use for an upcoming installment. The book pulls apart the threads of the Clinton sex scandal that devoured the late 1990s, framing it as a legal thriller surrounding Paula Jones, Kenneth Starr, and Monica Lewinsky.

The first season of “ACS,” “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” was based on Toobin’s “The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson.” That first season garnered a massive pile of awards-show recognition for the cast and creative teams, including a record 10 Emmy wins.

“ACS” currently has two seasons in production: “Katrina,” set in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and “Versace,” about the 1997 murder of Gianni Versace. “Versace” will be based on the book “Vulgar Favors” by Vanity Fair writer Maureen Orth. The “Katrina” season won’t air until 2018, but will quickly be followed by “Versace,” according to FX Networks CEO John Landgraf.

Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk will continue to executive produce “American Crime Story,” as well as Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson’s Color Force banner. Murphy also has the upcoming FX anthology series “Feud” premiering Mar. 5, as well as three forthcoming installments of “American Horror Story.”

Dennis Quaid (The Art of More) has been tapped to play President George W. Bush in FX’s Katrina: American Crime Story, the second installment of the Emmy-winning limited series from Ryan Murphy, Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson.

Katrina: American Crime Story will tell the story of America’s response to the devastating 2005 storm. Bush was strongly criticized for his handling of the hurricane’s aftermath, including his statement praising FEMA Director Michael D. Brown — “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job” — while much of America disagreed. Brown is played by Matthew Broderick in the limited series.


Ryan Murphy, Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson serve as executive producers on Katrina: American Crime Story, which is produced by Fox 21 Television Studios and FX Productions.

Broderick will play Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Michael D. Brown, who was in charge of the federal disaster response to Hurricane Katrina.

Annette Bening has joined the cast of FX’s Katrina: American Crime Story, the second installment of the Emmy-winning limited series from Ryan Murphy, Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson. Bening will play Kathleen Blanco, the governor of Louisiana during and after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

I have learned that FX’s Ryan Murphy limited series Katrina: American Crime Story is moving full steam ahead, acquiring the book Five Days At Memorial by Pulitzer Prize winner Sheri Fink as source material. Scott Rudin, who had bought the rights to the book shortly after it came out in 2013, has come on board as an executive producer alongside the Emmy-winning ACS trio of Murphy, Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson. I hear Fink also is expected to be involved in the project, which details the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans, and the decision by medical staff, led by Dr. Anna Pou, to euthanize critically ill patients after being trapped in the hospital for days without power.

In a followup to her Emmy-winning turn as Marcia Clark on People v. O.J. Simpson: ACS, I hear Sarah Paulson will play Dr. Pou in Katrina, which is currently looking for a writer/showrunner to pen the adaptation. Katrina is expected to start production in the spring and premiere in 2019 as the third installment in the ACS franchise following People v. O.J. Simpson and the upcoming The Assassination of Gianni Versace.

Katrina was originally supposed to air second but the idea took longer to gel as the producers had been trying to figure out what part of the sprawling story of the Hurricane Katrina aftermath to tell, and Five Days at Memorial is giving them a story engine to do that.

“I’m confident it will air,” FX Networks CEO John Landgraf said about Katrina yesterday at TCA. Murphy has a “great idea for a pivot” and “now it’s in really good shape,” Landgraf said.

I hear Murphy had also pursued Five Days At Memorial, published by Crown, when it was acquired by Rudin and his Scott Rudin Prods. to adapt as a movie. I hear that the movie rights to the book recently lapsed, and Murphy approached Rudin who loved the idea about turning the book into a limited series.

I hear no other cast members besides Paulson are currently attached to Katrina but the producers would try to find new characters for some of the actors that had been previously earmarked for the project, including Annette Bening, Dennis Quaid and Matthew Broderick, to play.

In Five Days At Memorial, Fink, a physician as well as a writer, takes an unflinching look at the decisions doctors made at Memorial Medical Center, a hospital in New Orleans that was overwhelmed in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina.

The doctors, who lost electrical power and backup and were not supported by hospital owners who had no generator mechanic on staff or even an evacuation plan, were forced to make calculated decisions on which patients to save.

Some of those who were not expected to make it were shot up with morphine and left to die. This was four days into a devastating hurricane where generators failed, the intensive care wing sweltered in darkness and chaos and gunshots rang out in the areas outside the hospital. A day later, the entire hospital was evacuated.

The book focuses on an attempt to prosecute Dr. Pou and two nurses for homicide after an investigation showed elevated levels of morphine and other drugs in 23 patients who died at the hospital. Of those, 20 were ruled homicides. Fink won the Pulitzer for a dispatch she wrote as an assignment for ProPublica and The New Times Magazine in 2009.

FX has slotted Wednesday, January 17, 10 PM for the premiere of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, the second installment of the praised limited series from Ryan Murphy, Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson.

The 10-episode Versace examines the shocking July 1997 assassination of Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramirez) on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion by sociopath and serial killer Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss). Penelope Cruz and Ricky Martin also star.