Bret Easton Ellis’ series at HBO is inching closer to reality. HBO has tapped Kristoffer Borgli to direct the series adaptation of the Ellis book “The Shards.”

Borgli, who directed last year’s “Dream Scenario” starring Nicolas Cage and 2022’s “Sick of Myself,” is attached to direct and serve as an executive producer on the series that’s currently in development at HBO.

Ellis published “The Shards” just last year, and the series per its official logline is “set in the early ’80s and tracks a group of privileged Los Angeles High School friends as a serial killer strikes across the city.”

But what makes “The Shards” ripe for an adaptation is that it’s a pulpy and sexy yet sprawling and unwieldy piece of fiction featuring much of Ellis’ own biography. While it follows the murders of a serial killer known as The Trawler with great detail, it also...