It was one of the biggest literary hits of the 1980s, and one of the most infamous cinematic duds of the 1990s…and now it’s coming to AppleTV. The Bonfire of the Vanities, the blockbuster Tom Wolfe satire of the excesses of 1980s Wall Street, is headed to the streamer. Presumed Innocent’s David E. Kelley is spearheading the series, and you may be surprised by who’s going to be in the director’s chair.
According to reports, Matt Reeves will direct the series. It will be the first TV directorial gig for Reeves since he made his big-screen breakthrough with Cloverfield. Reeves is currently writing and directing the much-delayed The Batman: Part II, which is slated to begin filming this spring and be released on October 1, 2027. TV hitmaker Kelley has had a successful string of streaming series in recent years, including Goliath, Big Little Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers, and The Lincoln Lawyer; his next Apple series, Margo’s Got Money Troubles, will premiere on the streamer later this month. The Bonfire of the Vanities is his second adaptation of Wolfe’s work; a miniseries adaptation of the 1996 novel A Man in Full premiered on Netflix in 2024.
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What Is ‘The Bonfire of the Vanities’ About?
The book, which was first serialized in Rolling Stone before being published as a novel in 1987, centers around Sherman McCoy, a successful Wall Street trader with a loving wife and a beautiful mistress. However, when out with the latter one night, he takes a wrong turn into a bad neighborhood and accidentally commits a hit-and-run. Soon, all of New York is sent into an uproar when McCoy becomes the defendant in the trial of the century. The book was a massive success with readers and critics, and seemed destined to succeed at the box office, as well. The film was directed by Brian De Palma, coming off the success of The Untouchables, and boasted a star-studded cast, including Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, and Morgan Freeman. However, the film was a bust at the box office and was excoriated by critics. To add insult to injury, the film’s production was chronicled by journalist Julie Salamon in the book The Devil’s Candy; Salamon had been given unprecedented access by Warner Bros., who believed they had a hit on their hands, only for the author to deliver an autopsy of the film’s failings.
Writer and journalist Wolfe was a pioneer of “New Journalism,” which added literary techniques to a reporter’s repertoire. His other works include The Right Stuff and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test; he died at age 88 in 2018.
The Bonfire of the Vanities is in development as a miniseries at AppleTV. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
Release Date
December 21, 1990
Runtime
125 minutes
Director
Brian De Palma
Writers
Michael Cristofer
Producers
Christine Forsyth-Peters, Jon Peters