Leonardo Dicaprio to play serial killer HH Holmes in The Devil in the White City

Why is Leonardo Dicaprio so great? Because it's impossible to predict what his next role will be. He'll next be stretching his creative limits by taking on a role he's yet to play, that of real life serial killer H.H. Holmes in an adaptation of The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic And Madness At The Fair That Changed America. Erik Larson's 2003 non-fiction book follows two parallel stories, that of Daniel Burnham, who helped create the legendary World's Fair back in 1893, and that of Holmes who used the fair as a means of luring victims to what became known as his "Murder Castle".

Holmes was known for using his charm to attract his unwitting victims, at one point convincing the wife of a drugstore owner to sell him the business. She disappeared soon after and is assumed to be one of his first victims. Holmes was also a bigamist, with as many as three wives.

Almost sounds like a Jim Thompson novel, with a vicious killer plying his trade out in plain sight but nobody noticing. At this point I expect Dicaprio to hit everything he touches out of the park, but he's never played a character quite this vile before. Holmes was a guy who rigged up his three block long "castle" with various means of dispatching his victims(most of which were his current employees). He would then strip the flesh off the bodies and sell them to medical schools, hang the skeletons in his chamber, or melt them in acid baths. I can't wait to see how Dicaprio's natural charisma and charm come to life in such a character.

No word on any potential directors, but I'm sure it won't be long before we find out.