Speaking about the upcoming series, executive producer Jason Blum told Digital Spy that they had originally agreed to turn it into a film and that they were initially nervous about changing course.

“It would have been easier to do today, but three or four years ago when we changed course to a television show, it was a controversial thing to do,” he said.

Despite all the changes that the project has gone through since they first acquired the rights to it five years ago, though, Blum added that he is “really excited” about the show.

“I think it’s going to be a great piece of television programming and I think it’s going to be a much better series than it would have been a movie,” he said, adding that it will “definitely feel dark” as the show retains many of the original book’s “unsettling themes”.

“The scripts are super compelling – it’s programming that you have to keep watching,” he said.

Watch Amy Adams in chilling first trailer for HBO’s Sharp Objects