After a bidding war that included Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox, Paramount has emerged with the winning seven-figure bid for Leonardo DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese’s sixth film together.
Scorsese will direct the adaptation of Erik Larson’s nonfiction book, The Devil In The White City: Murder, Magic And Madness At The Fair That Changed America. DiCaprio will play Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, one of the most prolific serial killers in American history who is believed to have murdered between 27 and 200 people in the late 19th century.
At 1893’s World’s Fair in Chicago, Holmes preyed upon mostly single young women and his hotel guests whom he disposed of in his “murder castle†that included a gas chamber, incinerators, and a hanging chamber. Holmes stripped his victims’ flesh from their bodies and sold their skeletons to medical schools and other research facilities.
Previously, DiCaprio and Scorsese have collaborated on The Aviator, Gangs of New York, The Departed, Shutter Island, and The Wolf Of Wall Street. The Devil in The White City is being adapted for the screen by Billy Ray, whose take on the material will reportedly split the screentime between DiCaprio’s Holmes and Daniel H. Burnham, the producer and architect of the World’s Fair who unwittingly hired a murderer to build his hotel.
Because the deal for The Devil In The White City has just closed, there is currently no timetable for the film to begin production.
Movie fans, are you excited to see DiCaprio and Scorsese team up once again? Can Dr. Holmes terrify modern audiences with his murder castle? Book a trip to our comment section and share your screams…I mean, opinions below!
