David E. Kelley’s next project for Apple TV will take on one of the quintessential novels of the 1980s.
The prolific showrunner is teaming with director Matt Reeves for a series based on Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities. The project is in development at Apple TV, with Warner Bros. TV as the studio.
Kelley (Big Little Lies, Apple’s Presumed Innocent) is adapting the novel, and Reeves (The Batman, War for the Planet of the Apes) is on board to direct. They’ll executive produce along with Sarah Geismer of Reeves’ 6th and Idaho Productions and Matthew Tinker of Kelley’s eponymous company.
The Bonfire of the Vanities is Kelley’s second show based on one of Wolfe’s novels. He previously adapted A Man in Full for a 2024 Netflix limited series, which starred Jeff Daniels.
A major bestseller when it was published in 1987, The Bonfire of the Vanities takes on the excesses of 1980s Wall Street and the media and political cultures of New York at that time. The story revolves around a bond trader accused of a hit-and-run, a washed-up tabloid reporter covering the case and the assistant district attorney prosecuting it.
The novel was adapted once before — as a notorious feature film flop. Brian De Palma directed the 1990 movie, which starred Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis and Melanie Griffith.
Should it go to series, The Bonfire of the Vanities will be Kelley’s third show for Apple TV, after Presumed Innocent and the upcoming Margo’s Got Money Troubles, which premieres April 15.
Kelley and David E. Kelley Productions are repped by CAA, Gendler Kelly and Narrative PR. Reeves is repped by CAA, 3 Arts Entertainment and Jackoway Austen.
