Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese to collaborate again on The Devil in the White City

Leonardo DiCaprio and are set to work together again on the film adaptation of Erik Larson’s book ‘The Devil in the White City’.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese are set to team up again for ‘The Devil in the White City’.

The pair are in talks to star in and direct the movie adaptation of Erik Larson’s bestselling book that has been revived by 20th Century Studios.

DiCaprio and Scorsese are also set to produce the film alongside Stacey Sher, Rick Yorn and the ‘Titanic’ star’s Appian Way Productions partner Jennifer Davisson.

Insiders say that there is currently no script for the picture, which is based on Larson’s non-fiction book ‘Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America’ – first published in 2004.

DiCaprio and Scorsese, who have previously collaborated on six movies together, have been working on the project for a while and have always felt that the story has resonated through the years and continues to do so.

The ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ actor landed the rights to the book back in 2010 and, despite having gone through numerous stages of development including a TV series that never materialised, sources say that all parties agreed to bring the story to the big screen after a meeting with 20th Century executives.

The story centres on Dr. HH Holmes, a serial killer who is believed to have murdered between 27 and 200 people during a period when the city of Chicago was preoccupied with hosting the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893.

The book plays on the contrasts between the hopeful expectations presented at the exposition and the dark crimes of Holmes – who moved in the shadows and built a concealed house of horrors.

DiCaprio and Scorsese most recently worked together on the 2023 flick ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ and the legendary director hailed the star as a “natural film actor”.

The 82-year-old filmmaker said: “What’s great about Leo, and it’s why we work together so often, is, he goes there. He goes to these weird places that are so difficult and convoluted, and through the convolution, somehow there’s a clarity that we can reach.

“And usually it’s in the expression, in his face, in his eyes. I’ve always told him this. He’s a natural film actor. I could shoot a close-up of him, he could be thinking of nothing, and I could intercut anything with it, and people will say, ‘Oh, he’s reacting to such and such.’

“There’s something in his face that the camera locks into, in his eyes.”

Scorsese suggested last year that he had no plans to retire as he feels he still has “more films to make”.

Speaking at the Turin Film Festival, he said: “I’m not saying goodbye to cinema at all.

“I still have more films to make, and I hope God gives me the strength to make them.”

Close Bitnami banner
Bitnami