From l to r, Ricky Martin, Darren Criss and Edgar Ramirez One of the upcoming season's most highly anticipated TV series will be partially set in Minnesota. "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story" opens with Andrew Cunanan killing the famed designer, but the story will move backwards with two episodes taking place in Minneapolis, where Cunanan's killing spree began.
Brad Simpson, who serves as an executive producer alongside Ryan Murphy, said film crews would not actually be shooting in the Midwest, but they were scouting areas of Los Angeles that could double for downtown Minneapolis. Most of those two episodes, which will pop up in the middle of the 10-part series, will feature interior scenes.
The drama, a follow-up to the Emmy-winning "The People vs. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story," relies heavily on the Maureen Orth's book,"Vulgar Favors," but the research team behind the series pored over around 400 pages from the Minneapolis Police department on their own.
"Minneapolis was hugely important," said Tom Rob Smith, who wrote every episode. "It's a key part of our story."
Darren Criss who plays Cunanan, said the character was so many different personalities to so many different people.
"In a way, for me, that makes things a bit easier because we're not just following what we would assume to be a murderous, horrible person all the time," said Criss, during a break in shooting earlier this week. "We see him at his best. We see him at his worst. We see him at his most charming. We see him at his most hurt."
"Versace," which co-stars Ricky Martin, Penelope Cruz and Edgar Ramirez, will premiere in January 2018 on FX.
