Netflix scraps highly-anticipated 'Groundhog Day'-like thriller adaptation after 2 years in development

The planned adaptation was for Stuart Turton’s prize-winning novel 'The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle'
PUBLISHED JAN 22, 2023
Netflix has scrapped yet another highly anticipated project (Getty Images)
Netflix has scrapped yet another highly anticipated project (Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Netflix is known for its originality and buzzworthy movies and shows, but there isn't a happy ending for one of the most talked-about projects. According to Variety,  the author of the novel 'The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle', Stuart Turton, recently shared a now-deleted tweet that read, “Alright pals, I come bearing bad news,” he wrote. “Netflix has canned its plans to make a telly adaptation of ‘Seven Deaths.’ Sad news, but thems the breaks. We’re looking for another home for it, but the focus at the minute is making sure it’s f*****g brilliant when it does arrive.”

Originally, the plans for the adaptation started in 2020 and it has been in development for more than two years and was chosen as a project development slate for original UK content. But, it got scrapped in the initial phase of development.

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The Netflix adaptation would have been a thriller mystery series that surrounds itself with a 'Groundhog Day' situation, where the narrator must repeat the same day over and over again till they can find the killer of the beautiful young heiress, Evelyn Hardcastle, and break the loop.

"I've wanted to write an Agatha Christie-style mystery since I was eight years old, when I used to read them one after another in my bedroom," Turton stated to the LAPL Blog in 2018. "I tried when I was 21, but it was rubbish. I was just flinging Christie tropes onto the page without adding anything unique of my own. I realized I needed a twist, so I decided to put the book down until I had something that would make the story stand out. I thought that idea would take a week, maybe a month. Twelve years later, I was on a long flight when my mind wandered back to this book I'd always wanted to write. Usually, when that happened, my thoughts hit a brick wall, but this time the concept was waiting for me. Agatha Christie in a Groundhog Day loop, with a bit of Quantum Leap thrown in. All I had to do then was find characters, the plot and a clever murder... no problem."

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