Nearly five years after first attaching himself to a film adaptation of the acclaimed non-fiction novel The Devil In The White City, Leonardo DiCaprio has finally found a director. Martin Scorsese will work with DiCaprio for a sixth time to bring to life the story of a notorious serial killer who terrorized 19th Century Chicago.
DiCaprio obtained the rights to Erik Larson’s 2003 novel The Devil In The White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America in November 2010. Most of the major studios had been eyeing the project since then, but Deadline suddenly reported last night that Paramount won out.
The studio, which distributed 2013’s The Wolf Of Wall Street, obtained the rights to the full package, which includes DiCaprio as the serial killer Dr. H.J. Holmes, who killed anywhere between 27 and 200 people, targeting single women. Scorsese will direct and Billy Ray (Captain Phillips, Bridge of Spies) is writing the script.
DiCaprio and his Appian Way partner Jennifer Davisson will produce with Stacey Sher, Scorsese and Emma Tillinger Koskoff. Elizabeth Raposo and new Paramount Film Group President Marc Evans will oversee for the studio.
DiCaprio will next be seen in Alejandro G. Inarritu’s The Revenant. It’s possible that The Devil In The White City could be his next film, although he is also hoping to make The Crowded Room, another passion project that would find him playing a man with multiple personalities.
As for Scorsese, he’s finishing up work on Silence, which should be out next year. The director’s previous work with DiCaprio includes Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island, and The Wolf of Wall Street.
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