EXCLUSIVE: The long-awaited movie adaptation of Erik Larson’s bestselling e-book The Devil within the White City simply acquired a shot of adrenaline, as sources inform Deadline that twentieth Century has come on to the undertaking with Leonardo DiCaprio in talks to star and Martin Scorsese in talks to direct. DiCaprio and Scorsese would additionally produce together with Stacey Sher, Rick Yorn and DiCaprio’s Appian Way accomplice Jennifer Davisson.
Sources add that there’s presently no script for the pic, which is predicated on the e-book Devil within the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness on the Fair That Changed America first revealed in 2004.
DiCaprio and Scorsese have been creating the undertaking for a while, and sources say they at all times felt this was a narrative that has resonated all through the years. and nonetheless does. DiCaprio first landed rights to the e-book in 2010, and although the undertaking has gone via varied phases of growth through the years, together with a TV sequence adaptation at Hulu that by no means got here to fruition), insiders say that following a gathering with twentieth Century execs, all events had been on board to inform this story on the theatrical stage.
The story follows Dr. HH Holmes, a crafty serial killer believed to have murdered wherever from 27 to 200 folks at a time when town of Chicago was enthralled with internet hosting the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. The e-book performs off the contrasts between the hopeful expectations and wonders offered on the exposition and the darkish deeds of Holmes, who maneuvered in its shadows.
This marks one other large victory for the studio, Disney Live-Action and twentieth Century president David Greenbaum and Steve Asbell, who’ve been on a roll going again to touchdown one other high-profile bundle: the Bruce Springsteen pic Deliver Me From Nowhere starring Jeremy Allen White. They shortly adopted that by touchdown the sought-after bundle The Barrier starring Austin Butler with Edward Berger directing. All three initiatives line up with what Greenbaum desires for twentieth: movies that that embody business, international theatrical and status with A-list expertise and authentic filmmaking.
Asbell, Greenbaum and SVP Production Sarah Shepard can be overseeing Devil within the White City for the studio.
LBI Entertainment reps DiCaprio, Appian Way and Scorsese, who can also be repped by WME.
