Amy Adams might head into Dark Places for director Gilles Paquet-Brenner

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

It’s hard to think about Amy Adams as anything other than a darling ray of ginger sunshine, but it looks as though she’s traveling into some grim territory with the suspense thriller DARK PLACES, which is based on the novel of the same name by Gillian Flynn.

Gilles Paquet-Brenner, who directed last year’s hit drama SARAH’S KEY, will pen the screenplay and take the helm.

In short, the Adams will play Libby Day, a woman who, at seven-years old, survived the brutal massacre of her family and testified against her brother as the murderer. Twenty-five years later, the Kill Club, a secret-society obsessed with solving notorious crimes, bring her to question and confront the truth of what took place that day.

If you’re looking for a little more meat, here’s the extended book synopsis:

Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” As her family lay dying, little Libby fled their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost some fingers and toes, but she survived–and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who’ve long forgotten her.

The Kill Club is a macabre secret society obsessed with notorious crimes. When they locate Libby and pump her for details–proof they hope may free Ben–Libby hatches a plan to profit off her tragic history. For a fee, she’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club… and maybe she’ll admit her testimony wasn’t so solid after all.

As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the narrative flashes back to January 2, 1985. The events of that day are relayed through the eyes of Libby’s doomed family members–including Ben, a loner whose rage over his shiftless father and their failing farm have driven him into a disturbing friendship with the new girl in town. Piece by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started–on the run from a killer.

Good stuff, wouldn’t you say? No start date has been locked in yet, but we’ll let you know how this one is progressing as more information comes in.