Gone Girl was, without a doubt, the breakout book of 2012 – and the film, starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, was just as successful, winning a bevy of awards and positive reviews from critics.

So it makes sense that HBO bosses have decided to nab another of Gillian Flynn’s novels for themselves to bring to life on the small screen.

Read more: Read an extract from Gillian Flynn’s new and terrifying story

Just like the book, Sharp Objects will follow Camille Preaker (Amy Adams), a newspaper journalist, who has struggled with self-harm and mental health issues for years following the death of her sister, Marian.

After a request from her editor, she reluctantly agrees to return to her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri, to report on a series of murders; it’s not long before she’s forced  to confront her past – and her demons – head on.

“We need to talk about your daughters. One of them is dangerous, the other one’s in danger,” a character says in a voiceover for the trailer.

Cue footage of two girls playing in front of car headlights, a throng of policemen rushing toward a crime scene and Adams’ character staring at a razor blade.

Watch it for yourself below:

An official synopsis on The Hollywood Reporter reads: “For years, Camille hardly has spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful 13-year-old with an eerie grip on the town.

“Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims… a bit too strongly. 

“Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story – and survive this homecoming.”

Hmm: neuroses, dysfunctional families, psychological warfare and murder most foul? Sounds like excellent fodder for a gripping TV show, particularly as Emmy Award-winning Big Little Lies director Jean-Marc Vallee is at the helm.

Read more: The true story that inspired Gone Girl

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.

We don’t doubt it: with a psychological puzzle this intense, we’d far prefer to see it solved over a longer run of episodes than in a two-hour film.

The eight-episode series will be directed by Dallas Buyers Club’s Jean-Marc Vallée, who will also be co-editing the show, and produced by Buffy veteran Marti Noxon. Adams will be joined by a star-studded cast, including Patricia Clarkson, Chris Messina, Eliza Scanlen, Elizabeth Perkins and Matt Craven.

All in all, it seems Sharp Objects will be the perfect antidote to the Big Little Lies-shaped hole in our TV schedules. We can’t wait for it to air on HBO in July 2018…

Images: Rex Pictures