American Crime Story writer Tom Rob Smith on The Assassination of Gianni Versace: People only know a fragment of the story

In summer 1997, Gianni Versace was on top of the world. His fashion empire was worth $807 million, encompassing 130 boutiques worldwide. After a period of ill health the Italian designer was fit and happy. And, after coming out in the early Nineties, he was content in a long-term relationship with Antonio D’Amico, a model. Life in his mansion on Miami Beach was good.

Then, on July 15, Versace, aged 50, was shot dead in a seemingly random attack on a morning walk along Ocean Drive. His killer, Andrew Cunanan, committed suicide with the same gun eight days later — it transpired that Versace was his fifth murder victim. The fashion world was in mourning.

But the wider world, while shocked by this senseless killing, soon moved on — in one sense, the loss was eclipsed by the death, six weeks later, of Diana, Princess of Wales.

That might have been that, had it not been, 20 years later, for the current TV vogue for true-crime dramas, and for the efforts of London novelist-turned-screenwriter Tom Rob Smith.

Smith, author of the thrillers Child 44 and The Farm, and creator of 2015’s BBC2 thriller London Spy (starring Ben Whishaw), wrote the scripts for The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. It’s the second volume in the US television anthology series overseen by the hugely prolific and successful Ryan Murphy (Glee).

The eight-part dramatisation, coming to BBC2 on Wednesday, stars Édgar Ramírez (Zero Dark Thirty) as Versace, singer-turned-actor Ricky Martin as his boyfriend, Glee alumnus Darren Criss as the disturbed and damaged Cunanan, and Penélope Cruz as the designer’s sister, Donatella. It’s the follow-up to The People vs O.J. Simpson, the 2016 mini-series which was a ratings and critical smash, winning nine Emmys and two Golden Globes.

“With O.J., everyone knew all the minutiae,” says Smith. “They had to unpick that to tell a story people didn’t know. This is a story where people only know a fragment.”

Hence, he says, beginning his drama at the end: the murder, told via an eight-minute opening scene in the first episode. Beyond hooking viewers with that graphic, curtains-up incident, Smith wanted to “get to the heart of Versace”. His primary resource was Vulgar Favours, a book about the assassination by journalist Maureen Orth.

“There isn’t that 500-page, warts-and-all biography on Versace. You feel that gap because he’s such an extraordinary figure. The things he overcame, how he changed fashion — it’s so monumental. You can’t imagine Alexander McQueen without Versace.”

Filming took place in Miami, much of it in Versace’s home, which is now a hotel. Veracity was key to the production, meaning they wouldn’t shoot in Los Angeles.

“The sea is different in Florida, the beaches are different,” notes Smith, 39, gesturing to the view: we’re talking in a hotel by the Pacific in Santa Monica, where Smith lives with his partner, Ben Stephenson. Formerly Controller of BBC Drama Commissioning, he now heads the television division at J.J. Abrams’s nearby Bad Robot production company. The couple have been here together for two years, and Smith — dressed in pricey-looking, beach-ready shorts and shirt — jokes that the kale juice he’s ordered “is very California”.

“The palm trees are different too,” he continues. “But it turned out that Versace preferred LA palm trees — they’re thinner and straighter. Miami ones are rugged. So he had LA ones driven across the country and planted at his home. I guess they’re easier to organise in a line around a pool.”

By coincidence, cast and crew were filming in the house on the 20th anniversary of the murder. “It was a strange time. One of the things I’m proud of is we celebrate Versace — we try and reclaim this sense of his legacy.”

“I wanted to contrast Cunanan — someone who is full of potential but has these missteps, and ends up this destructive suicidal, terrorist-like force, ripping down other people’s success — and someone who has just as many obstacles in life, yet builds this vast empire and has this loving relationship.”

It’s surely, then, a frustration that the Versace family have denounced the drama as a “fiction”. But Smith expected as much — they made similar comments when Orth’s book was published. Their stance put Cruz — a personal friend of Donatella — in a tricky position.

“Penélope had a real sense of the language of Donatella. She was involved in changing some of the line structure in the script, and the syntax.”

“We’re giving Penélope a heroic role. Donatella understands in this story that Cunanan is not just trying to take her brother’s life — it’s an attack on his legacy. And he’s trying to destroy the company. If this information comes out about her brother, then the company is in danger.”

“We’re not telling that as a piece of gossip. We’re doing it as this interesting narrative that this one man overcame that [illness]. But then he was struggling with the fact that if he told the world he had HIV/Aids, the company would have been worth nothing. This devaluation of all his life’s work — and what an injustice that is.”

Does the story have resonance for Smith? “This is a story of how you survive if you’re gay. Homophobia makes you think: how will I navigate the world? Growing up I never had a moral shame about being gay, I just thought I couldn’t be a success — all these avenues would be closed down to me.”

Smith, who was educated at Dulwich College and Cambridge, didn’t come out until he was 22, working as a storyliner on Family Affairs. An actress asked if he was gay. He said no. “I thought, ‘I can’t have other people know me better than I know myself’.”

He has, then, empathy for the Versaces and how the assassination of Gianni — and the secrets it revealed — impacted on the family. And he’s hopeful that Donatella might still come round.

“If they’re not going to watch it — which is completely understandable — hopefully they’ll understand that there is real love for them and their brother who achieved so much. I’d hope at least they’d hear that from someone — maybe even Penélope.”

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story stars Wednesday, February 28 at 9pm on BBC Two.