Horror Leonardo DiCaprio to play "The Devil In The White City"

[Hunter Rider]

This one is a blast from the past, always liked the sound of it.

 

[jacobed]

It's a great book

 

[James.B]

Scorsese to Direct
http://deadline.com/2015/08/leonardo-dicaprio-martin-scorsese-devil-in-the-white-city-billy-ray-paramount-1201496941/

A killer role that Leonardo DiCaprio has wanted to play for a long time is finally coming to the forefront after Paramount just closed a splashy deal to acquire the Erik Larson book The Devil In The White City: Murder, Magic And Madness At The Fair That Changed America. There was a big auction that had five studios chasing and three bidding aggressively–Universal and Fox were the others–before Paramount captured a package that has DiCaprio starring and re-teaming with his The Wolf Of Wall Street director Martin Scorsese. Billy Ray will write the script. Appian Way’s DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson are producing with Stacey Sher, Scorsese and Rick Yorn. This is a big one for recently minted Paramount Film Group president Marc Evans; it’s expected to be the next collaboration for DiCaprio and Scorsese, who’ve made five films together.

Between book option and Ray’s writing fees, this is a solid seven figure commitment, and much more when the picture gets made. Paramount’s Elizabeth Raposo will oversee it with Evans.

DiCaprio will play one of the most prolific serial killers in Chicago history, the 19th Century equivalent of Hannibal Lecter. He has wanted this for a long time, but the project’s second wind occurred after Warner Bros let the rights lapse a month ago on the 2003 non-fiction book (Graham Moore was among the writers who did drafts) and came out of conversations with Par’s Brad Grey and Scorsese and Yorn about the studio being at the center of the next DiCaprio-Scorsese teaming, after the studio released The Wolf Of Wall Street and it got five Oscar nominations. Yorn, DiCaprio and Scorsese went out with a new take on the material from Ray that got everybody excited all over again. The trick with this property has been interlacing the two main characters, the producer/architect of the World’s Fair, and the man who works for him and turned out to be a mass murderer. Ray cracked that, and the town flipped for it.

DiCaprio will play Dr. HH Holmes, a cunning serial killer believed to have murdered anywhere from 27 to 200 people at a time when the city of Chicago was enthralled with hosting the World’s Fair of 1893. Holmes constructed The World’s Fair Hotel, an inn more lethal than the Bates Motel, especially for young single women. The sociopath used charm and guile to lure guests into what became known as a “murder castle,” a haunt that had a gas chamber, crematorium and a dissecting table where Holmes would murder his victims and strip their skeletons to sell for medical and scientific study.

It’s a departure for DiCaprio to play an unrepentant bad guy, but it goes well into a career full of risk taking that includes The Wolf Of Wall Street with Scorsese (for which both got Oscar nominations), and the upcoming The Revenant, the Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu-directed film for New Regency and Fox. Ray has been working with DiCaprio and Davisson as he wrote the script for The Ballad Of Richard Jewell, the film that will star Jonah Hill. He’s also writing Twilight Zone for Appian Way at Warner Bros. Ray wrote and directed The Secret In Their Eyes, which STX Entertainment releases November 20.

 

[liesse00]

Just saw the news, can't wait. I was just watching interviews with the author about the book the other day, perfect timing.

The city fully realized will look amazing http://all-that-is-interesting.com/1893-chicago-fair

 

[Fallen Angel]

I'm now convinced one of these has pictures of the other in incriminating positions.

 

[Hurm...]

YESSSSSSS, I loved this f***ing book.

 

[redhawk23]

What is interesting is that during the press for Wolf of Wall Street, Scorsese described how the main reason he has made so many films with DiCaprio is that DiCaprio brings him onto projects while meanwhile many of his non DiCaprio projects fail to find funding.

 

[Fallen Angel]

Scorsese struggling to find funding in Hollywood? I find that very hard to believe. It's not as if he's made dud's lately either.

 

[MadVillainy]

This sounds cool

However I'm still hoping Scorsese does Kill the Irishman or that Jamie Foxx Mike Tyson movie

Scorsese struggling to find funding in Hollywood? I find that very hard to believe. It's not as if he's made dud's lately either.

Even Speilberg has had problems getting funding.

It's crazy but it's believable.

 

[Black Narcissus]

Scorsese struggling to find funding in Hollywood? I find that very hard to believe. It's not as if he's made dud's lately either.

Scorsese had trouble finding money for Silence all these years tho.


This is fantastic news! Leo playing a serial killer is Hnnnnngh.

 

[kvz5]

F-ck yeah!

 

[Black Narcissus]

I actually read a draft of this. Leo's part was the best for obvious reasons but the otter characters were not fleshed out. I hope it changed.

 

[Hurm...]

Scorsese struggling to find funding in Hollywood? I find that very hard to believe. It's not as if he's made dud's lately either.

Sadly, it's true. That is the state that Hollywood is in right now. Auteurs, like Scorsese and Spielberg, can't find funding for their dream projects, because they aren't exactly what major distribution companies want to sell.

Scorsese's pictures - even just 10-15 years ago - would have budgets of 100 million+ dollars. It's hard seeing a studio fork up that amount for a film that isn't a sci-fi epic or a comic book film. That is why Wolf of Wall Street took years to get made - it had a 100million dollar budget. Major studios, now, are only willing to fork up half of that amount - like 40-60 million - for these type of pictures.

Essentially, major companies have changed their priorities in the last few years. However, when you have pictures like American Sniper (a 60 million dollar budget) making hundreds of thousands of dollars, that presents hope for these auteurs.

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

Leo & Scorcese?!

can't wait! was already looking forward to it because the story sounds very intriguing but now with Scorcese involved this is gonna be epic

 

[flickchick85]

Yessss, I've been waiting for this for ages. HH Holmes is so fascinating to me, and Scorsese was near the top of my wishlist of directors to do it. Can't wait.

 

[HighFivingMF]

I actually read a draft of this. Leo's part was the best for obvious reasons but the otter characters were not fleshed out. I hope it changed.

Are the otters going to be animated or?

 

[Black Narcissus]

Yessss, I've been waiting for this for ages. HH Holmes is so fascinating to me, and Scorsese was near the top of my wishlist of directors to do it. Can't wait.

Nolan and Fincher for me. Scorsese ain't bad tho.

Are the otters going to be animated or?

I honestly don't know if you're ****ing with me or I forgot that part of the script/book. lol

There is a really great sequence for the Chicago Ferris Wheel.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Great news and a great team to take on this adaptation.

 

[CapedCrusader14]

Holy **** this is happening? I've been reading the book the last few weeks, I am hyped as hell now. Despite some of the repetitive and cheap writing at times I think it's a story tailor made for a great film. Bring it on!

 

[flickchick85]

Nolan and Fincher for me. Scorsese ain't bad tho.

Well I did say NEAR the top of my list, lol. Fincher was actually my top choice.

 

[Black Narcissus]

HH Holmes stuff from the script was chilling. Great stuff. The way[BLACKOUT] he got caught [/BLACKOUT]was lame as hell tho, but I'm going to assume it was accurate. Lawd.

 

[DeadPresident]

I actually read a draft of this. Leo's part was the best for obvious reasons but the otter characters were not fleshed out. I hope it changed.

Let's be honest, every other character is kind of like furniture compared to Holmes. Everyone else is going to be boring because they were just architects or tradesmen, Holmes is the only intriguing character in terms of development in the book this is likely to be based on.

 

[Fallen Angel]

This sounds cool

Even Speilberg has had problems getting funding.

It's crazy but it's believable.

Scorsese had trouble finding money for Silence all these years tho.

Wow didn't know that. If these two heavyweight's nay legend's find it hard t to get funding it shows how hard it is for new directors on the scene.

 

[Doctor Jones]

I've been anting to read this book for a few months now. Funny enough, yesterday in my school library I looked this up and they have it. Now I have to read this now. I could definitely see this working for Leo. I'll see anything he's in pretty much but him as a serial killer is intrigueing and exciting. He can definitely pull it off. Get Scorsese to do this and you got a film. I can already see a cool juxtposition of a scene with him killing someone and getting rid of the body while the fair is going off with fireworks. Imagine Scorsese directing it with Thelma Schoonmaker's cutting.

I'm reading too many damn books now for school. Once I finish those I'll try to pick this up.

Wow. High school me of five years ago and the me now are equally ****ing excited for this.

Scorsese doing a straight up serial killer is so new for him. The same for Leo. He did damn good in Django, but a straight up sociopathic murderer?

 

[Hurm...]

Wow. High school me of five years ago and the me now are equally ****ing excited for this.

Scorsese doing a straight up serial killer is so new for him. The same for Leo. He did damn good in Django, but a straight up sociopathic murderer?

It's interesting to think that Leo was in the running to play Patrick Bateman in American Psycho.