Disney-Fox Deal May Have Just Killed One of FX's Most Promising New Series

Since the acquisition of 21st Century Fox was completed by The Walt Disney Company in early 2019, many films and TV shows were quickly met with the ax. High profile films like Mouse Guard were cancelled by the studio along with projects like a Die Hard prequel movie and films based on Magic: The Gathering, Mega Man, and Play Doh. Now, the end has seemingly come for another ambitious project, this time on the TV side as one of the projects in the works at FX may not be moving forward.

Multi-hyphenate Noah Hawley has been working at FX on a variety of projects for years now. His success began with the TV adaptation of Fargo in 2014 and stretched to include Marvel's Legion. Hawley signed an overall deal with FX in 2015 which included three more projects, the first of which was set to be a limited series adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. Now, that project has stalled out according to Hawley and seems unlikely specifically of the Disney powers that be.

"That one is tough in a post-Disney acquisition age to do what probably is an expensive period Kurt Vonnegut mini-series," he said in an interview with Deadline. "So right now, it doesn't seem likely. But I remain committed to try and bring Vonnegut to the screen in a way that feels meaningful. I just don't know that I can make this one work in this corporate environment."

To make things more interesting, the trade revealed that they've heard elsewhere "the mini-series hasn't been killed at FX." Despite Hawley being unsure, it seems like perhaps the series could live on; however, he does have his hands full for the foreseeable future as he's writing and directing the next Star Trek movie for Paramount and is reportedly writing another book.

First published in 1963, Vonnegut's science-fiction satire lampooned the nuclear arms race with Hawley's adaptation described as follows: "As a writer researches the background for his book on the atomic bomb, he learns of the bomb's inventor Dr. Felix Hoenikker, and his most lethal invention "ice-nine," a substance that can freeze every bit of water on earth."

This shouldn't be taken as doom and gloom for the types of shows that FX has become famous for though. A miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's Carrie is in the works at the network along with the long in-development Y: The Last Man TV series. The ever popular American Horror Story has also been renewed for three more seasons.