FX fashions Versace’s death into modern issues
The following are highlights from the Television Critics Association’s summer preview of upcoming shows.
Gianni Versace is the murder victim in the next edition of FX’s American Crime Story, but the story will extend beyond the famed fashion designer.
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, the next chapter in the Emmywinning anthology series that opened with O.J. Simpson’s murder trial, examines the lives of Versace (Edgar Ramirez) and his killer, Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss), who shot and killed Versace outside his palatial home in Miami Beach in 1997. It premieres in January. Penelope Cruz plays Versace’s sister, Donatella, and singing star Ricky Martin plays Antonio D’Amico, the Italian designer’s partner.
The series opens with a nearly wordless, operatic eight-minute sequence detailing the moments leading to the murder of the fashion designer, who was open about being gay at a time when many prominent gay people weren’t. The scene, shown Wednesday to the Television Critics Association, features lush cinematography and orchestral music and was shot partly in Versace’s beautifully appointed home.
The new season, which uses Maureen Orth’s book, Vulgar Favors, as its source material, will look backward from the murder to examine the men’s lives. It also will go beyond the crime itself to examine prevailing social attitudes, including homophobia, executive producer Ryan Murphy said.
“Versace really did not have to die,” he said. “One of the reasons Andrew Cunanan was able to make his way across the country and pick off these victims, many of whom were gay, was because of homophobia at the time, particularly within the various police organizations that refused in Miami to put up wanted posters, even though they knew Cunanan was probably headed that way.”
Murphy says the season, which features an episode focusing on the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” military policy, remains relevant today, “particularly with the president we have and the world we live in.”
Murphy called Versace “a very important cultural figure” and Ramirez sees the designer as a disrupter who changed fashion and attitudes. “He combined sexiness and glamour and opulence like no one has done before.”
Criss said it’s important to depict the complexity of Cunanan and not present a monster caricature. “We’re not just following what we would assume to be a murderous, horrible person all the time. We see him at his best and his worst. We really get to know him as a person.”
Considering Versace’s career, the season will look at fashion as it portrays the designer’s life, offering a bonus after the lawyer-heavy O.J. courtroom drama,
Murphy said. “It was a real relief for me not to have to shoot boxy wool suits.”
A third Crime Story, centering on the devastating Hurricane Katrina that hit New Orleans in 2005, was planned to air first but is now due sometime in late 2018 or early 2019. — Bill Keveney
IN OTHER FX NEWS...
In his semi-annual state of the industry address presented to television writers in Beverly Hills, FX Networks chief John Landgraf included his latest tally of scripted shows on TV and streaming networks: The year-todate total stands at 342, up from 325 at this point last year. (There were 455 in all of 2016, according
to FX numbers crunchers.) Of this year’s total, 62 were streaming series, and 79 more have been announced but not yet aired.
Will Fargo return for a fourth season? “I hope so,” Landgraf said of the Emmy-winning limited series. But first, writerproducer Noah Hawley has two feature films and a second season of FX Marvel drama Legion. Chances are good for Fargo, but new episodes wouldn’t begin filming until at least 2019.
Landgraf said he’s “very confident about the future” prospects for Mayans, a reworked Sons of Anarchy spinoff. Creator Kurt Sutter will get a final decision in about three months. — Gary Levin