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This one is a blast from the past, always liked the sound of it.
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 aggressivelyUniversal and Fox were the othersbefore 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 Ways 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; its expected to be the next collaboration for DiCaprio and Scorsese, whove made five films together.
Between book option and Rays writing fees, this is a solid seven figure commitment, and much more when the picture gets made. Paramounts 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 projects 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 Pars 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 Worlds 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 Worlds Fair of 1893. Holmes constructed The Worlds 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.
Its 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. Hes 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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.![]()
Are the otters going to be animated or?
Well I did say NEAR the top of my list, lol. Fincher was actually my top choice.Nolan and Fincher for me. Scorsese ain't bad tho.![]()
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.
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.
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?