Together they’ve tackled psychological drama (Shutter Island) and true-life memoirs stranger than fiction (The Wolf of Wall Street), but for their next collaboration, Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio will be summoning The Devil in the White City, an adaptation of Erik Larson’s acclaimed work of non-fiction.
Word of Scorsese and DiCaprio reuniting for a sixth time first broke over a year ago, and though there’s been little sign of progress since – thanks in large part to their respectively crammed schedules – the filmmaker has now turned in a status report on The Devil in the White City, revealing that the script is still being “worked on” at the moment.
Larson’s book, entitled The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, chronicles the true, intertwining story behind architect Daniel H. Burnham and Dr. H.H. Holmes, the infamous serial killer who lured a string of victims to their death in an elaborately constructed Murder Castle. To date, Graham Moore (The Imitation Game) and Billy Ray (Captain Phillips) have made passes at the screenplay, but Scorsese concedes that there’s still work to be done.
Per The Toronto Sun:
“Right now, there is a script being worked on. One of the things that I had to stop for the past six months [to complete Silence] was my meetings on that script. They want me to start again in January and see if we can find a way because it’s an extraordinary story.”
No word yet on when Martin Scorsese will summon The Devil in the White City before the cameras. Bearing in mind that the illustrious filmmaker also has The Irishman in the mix, it could be some time yet before we see DiCaprio assume the role of H.H. Holmes. Silence, meanwhile, is expected to enter the awards race on Friday, December 23.
