Netflix greenlights Ryan Murphy’s limited series about Jeffrey Dahmer

Give Ryan Murphy a few more years and he'll have a hand in every TV series out there. In addition to American Horror Story, the past decade has seen Murphy develop Scream Queens, American Crime Story, Feud, 9-1-1, Pose, The Politician, 9-1-1: Lone Star, Hollywood, Ratched, and more. Dude is prolific.

Deadline has reported that Netflix has given the greenlight to Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, a new limited series co-created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan. Production on the series is slated to begin in January under the direction of Carl Franklin (Mindhunter) and Janet Mock (Hollywood), the latter of whom will also write. No word on who will play Jeffrey Dahmer at this point, but Richard Jenkins (THE SHAPE OF WATER) is onboard to play Dahmer's father Lionel, a chemist "who showed him how to safely bleach and preserve animal bones when he was a child, a technique Jeffrey later gave a sinister twist with his victims." The limited-series will largely be told from the point of view of Dahmer's victims as it will dive deeply into the police incompetence and apathy that allowed the infamous serial killer to continue murdering throughout the years. According to Deadline, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story will dramatize "at least 10 instances where Dahmer was almost apprehended but ultimately let go. The series also is expected to touch on white privilege, as Dahmer, a clean-cut, good-looking white guy, was repeatedly given a free pass by cops as well as by judges who were lenient when he had been charged with petty crimes." Dahmer murdered and dismembered 17 men and boys from 1978-1991 before he was finally captured and was ultimately beaten to death by another inmate in 1994.

Ryan Murphy and the other producers are currently searching nationwide for an actor to play the role of Jeffrey Dahmer, and are also meeting with actresses for the leading female role of Glenda Cleveland, a neighbor of Dahmer's who tried to warn law enforcement of his behavior multiple times but wasn't taken seriously.