FX Orders ‘American Sports Story’ & ‘American Love Story’, Developing ‘Studio 54: American Crime Story’
Ryan Murphy is about to be very busy… Or rather, even busier than he already is! FX is expanding the ‘American … Story’ franchise, adding ‘American Sports Story‘ & ‘American Love Story‘, along with developing ‘Studio 54: American Crime Story‘ as the 4th Season of that show.
‘American Sports Story’ is a scripted anthological limited series focusing on a prominent event involving a sports figure and re-examines it through the prism of today’s world, telling that story from multiple perspectives.
The first instalment of the series is based on the podcast Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc from the Boston Globe and Wondery. The limited series charts the rise and fall of NFL superstar Aaron Hernandez and explores the connections of the disparate strands of his identity, his family, his career, his suicide, and their legacy in sports and American culture.
Stu Zicherman (‘The Americans’) is the writer and Executive Producer and Ryan Murphy, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, Alexis Martin Woodall and Brad Falchuk are Executive Producers. Hernan Lopez and Marshall Lewy of Wondery (‘Dr. Death’) are Executive Producers alongside Executive Producers Linda Pizutti Henry and Ira Napoliello of The Boston Globe.
‘American Love Story’? is a scripted anthology series of sweeping true love stories that captured the world’s attention.
The first instalment depicts the whirlwind courtship and marriage of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. What started out as a beautiful union for the young couple, widely regarded as American royalty, began to fray under the stress of the relentless microscope and navel-gaze of tabloid media. The pressures of their careers and rumoured family discord ended with their tragic deaths when his private plane crashed into the ocean on a hazy summer night off the coast of Massachusetts.
Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson and Alexis Martin Woodall are Executive Producers of ‘American Love Story’.
‘Studio 54: American Crime Story’ is currently in development as the potential fourth instalment of the award-winning hit limited series franchise. The story tells the saga of Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager who in 1977 turned their midtown Manhattan disco into an international mecca of nightlife for the rich and famous and commoners alike – renowned for its lavish parties, music, sex and drugs. With Rubell and Schrager’s meteoric rise came their epic fall less than three years later when the impresarios were convicted of tax fraud.
“When Ryan Murphy came to us with these two spinoffs and the stories for American Sports Story and American Love Story, we immediately jumped at the opportunity,” said John Landgraf, Chairman of FX. “What began with American Horror Story has spawned some of the best and most indelible programs of our generation, most notably American Crime Story which created a beautiful partnership between Ryan, Brad, Nina and Brad. Their alchemy and the way in which they construct these stories is done with such care, such clarity and such dimensionality that creates the magnificence that is The People v. O.J. Simpson, The Assassination of Gianni Versace and Impeachment. We can’t wait to see what comes next.”
The expansion of the brand really shouldn’t come as a massive surprise to anyone given the sackloads of awards it has garnered over the years. Since Murphy Launched the “American Story” Franchise with ‘American Horror Story’ in 2011, AHS and ‘American Crime Story’ Have Combined to Earn 141 Emmy Nominations and Have Won 33 Emmy Awards.
“More than a decade ago, Ryan Murphy expressed interest in expanding the American Horror Story model to be able to tell different ‘American’ stories, which have long captivated so many of us,” adds Dana Walden, Chairman of Entertainment, Walt Disney Television. “It was a brilliant idea. Adding these new instalments to the franchise will enable Ryan, Brad, Nina and Brad and their talented teams to tackle riveting stories outside of the horror and crime genres. This group has done a truly amazing job of examining situations we think we know everything about and making us realize that there was so much more there than what we had been told. Many of us at 20th Television, FX and FXP have worked together on this franchise since the very beginning and it has been a privilege. It’s been an incredible partnership and collaboration and we’re looking forward to these new chapters.”
As these are just announced, we don’t know for sure where they will land in the UK. The BBC does currently still have a deal for the FX shows here, however, now we have STAR On Disney+, its unclear if that will be renewed when it runs out later this year. Certainly, a number of the newer FX shows have been announced as STAR Originals, so it seems likely these series will also end up on STAR too. We’ll let you know when we hear more. In the meantime, if you want to keep track of this show you can add them via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when they gets a UK premiere date.
