Kill Your Darlings | James Gray

[Cremildo]

Julia Robert is teaming up with James Gray to tackle an adaptation of New York Times bestselling author Peter Swanson’s forthcoming novel, Kill Your Darlings.

Scott Stuber’s rebooted United Artists label, as well as its big brother Amazon MGM Studios, have picked up the powerhouse package that also comes with a bevvy of producers.

The book, from HarperCollins, doesn’t come out until June, but Amazon and Stuber acted quickly to take the book off the Hollywood market. The story is a murder mystery told in reverse.

Darlings centers on Tom and Wendy Graves, a couple married for over 25 years who appear to have a picture-perfect life, but beneath the surface, they harbor a shocking secret. From the book’s description, the story moves “backward through time to witness key moments from the couple’s lives—their fiftieth birthday party, buying their home, Jason’s birth, the mysterious death of a work colleague—all painting a portrait of a marriage defined by a single terrible act they plotted together many years ago. Eventually we learn the details of what Thom and Wendy did in their early twenties, a secret that has kept them bound together through the length of their marriage. But its power over them is fraying, and each of them begins to wonder if they would be better off making sure their spouse carries their secrets to the grave.”+