At the New York premiere of FX's upcoming horror drama The Shards, the show's cast and creative team spoke about author Bret Easton Ellis' largely hands-off involvement in adapting his own semi-autobiographical 2023 novel for television. Despite the book's central importance to the cast's preparation, Ellis chose to let creator Ryan Murphy take full creative control after a previous, more troubled attempt to adapt the novel for HBO collapsed. This matters because it highlights an unusual level of authorial trust in an era when adaptations often face public disputes between writers and showrunners.

Ellis sold the rights to Murphy, wrote a draft of the first two episodes, and holds an executive producer credit, but did not attend Monday's premiere and has kept a low profile in promoting the series, which is due for release on 5 August. Producer Brad Simpson described Ellis' approach as "godfather-y" and hands-off, saying the author offered early guidance before stepping back entirely. Cast members including Kaia Gerber, a longtime fan of both Ellis and Murphy, said they had little to no contact with the author during filming but tried to stay faithful to the book's tone, with Gerber and co-star Hayes Warner both saying the series aims to "incite the same feeling" as the source material.