FX’s “The Shards,” Ryan Murphy‘s adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis thriller novel, is a love letter to Los Angeles. Filming there, he told his producers, was a non-negotiable.“We shot it in L.A. and, of course, it could have shot in Canada,” the showrunner told Variety at “The Shards” New York premiere on Monday night. “I could have made it for cheaper, but I said absolutely not. My partners were like, ‘Great, let’s roll up our sleeves and make it work.’ And we did.”Hollywood, once the epicenter of American film and television productions, has been grappling with production fleeing California in search of more competitive tax incentives. Despite recent efforts from state and city officials to increase tax incentives, Los Angeles production volume dropped 3.1% in the second quarter of 2026.
During a rare interview with Variety, Murphy explains why he “demanded” his next two projects shoot in Los Angeles, and how he was “very conscious” about the way sex was portrayed in “The Shards.”
A UCLA study from a few years ago found that nearly half of Gen Z doesn’t want sexual content in film and TV. I asked Olivia Wilde about this, and she told me that’s because sex hasn’t always been portrayed authentically. What’s your take on that?
