Back in 2002, director Martin Scorsese found a brand new muse in Leonardo DiCaprio - and in the 13 years since they have collaborated on a total of five feature films. It turns out that they're not ready to end their partnership just yet, as new reports have revealed that the director and star will be reuniting for the adaptation of the book The Devil In The White City: Murder, Magic And Madness At The Fair That Changed America.
DiCaprio has been trying to get a film version of the book made for years, but now Deadline is reporting that the new feature is a go at Paramount Pictures. Billy Ray, whose credits include Captain Phillips and The Hunger Games, is penning the screenplay, and the Wolf of Wall Street star will be playing Dr. HH Holmes - one of the worst serial killers in the history of America.
The 2003 non-fiction book The Devil In The White City tells the true story of Dr. Holmes and his evil operations in late 19th century Chicago. In 1893, the city was hosting a World's Fair, and Holmes agreed to build The World's Fair Hotel in celebration. What the people of the city didn't know is that the psychopathic monster made the building as his own "murder castle" and would lure young women there to be killed. The hotel included a gas chamber, a crematorium and a dissecting table, and, as Deadline notes, he was known for actually selling the skeletons of his victims for scientific study.
This project has been in development for a long time, but a script has never been in a proper condition to go in front of cameras. The new report says that Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese and producer Rick Yorn were all impressed by Billy Ray's new take on the feature - which will see Dr. HH Holmes be the co-lead of the film and share protagonist time with the producer/architect of the World’s Fair.
Up to this point, there hasn't really been a single Scorsese/DiCaprio film that can be directly compared with another, and it sounds like The Devil In The White City will be unique as well. Sure, the two men had a bit of practice with horror making 2010's Shutter Island, and 2013's The Wolf of Wall Street had DiCaprio in a much more villainous role, but there's no title on their shared resume with this kind of flavor.
While it sounds like The Devil In The White City will be the next collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio, exactly when they will be making it remains a bit of a mystery. The director is currently in post-production on the historical drama Silence, which won't be coming out until next year. The filmmaker hasn't announced what he will be making once he's done - the Frank Sinatra biopic and The Irishman still loom - but it would be exciting to see him take on this serial killer story.
