Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese have teamed together for five movies already, beginning with 2002's Gangs of New York and most recently with 2013's The Wolf of Wall Street. There should have been a sixth by now, though, as they've been circling an adaptation of Erik Larson's The Devil In The White City for five years. Now Deadline is reporting the serial killer film is finally moving ahead at Paramount Pictures.
The most intriguing aspect of this project has always been the idea of DiCaprio as infamous serial killer Dr. H.H. Holmes. Set against the backdrop of the 1893 World Fair in Chicago, Holmes built an elaborate "murder castle" where he lured dozens of people, mostly women, to their deaths. The building contained everything from a secret lynching room, to an incineration room, to another where he could quietly suffocate his victims. Some of the bodies he disposed of but others were stripped of flesh and sold for scientific study.Coming aboard to write the screenplay is Billy Ray, the Academy Award-nominated writer of Captain Phillips, The Hunger Games, and the writer/director of Shattered Glass, Breach, and the remake of The Secret in their Eyes. He's just the latest to give the script a shot, and his version, which will also follow World's Fair architect Daniel Burnham, is said to have impressed everyone involved.
What's uncertain is when Scorsese and DiCaprio plan to fit it into their schedules. Scorsese is wrapping up his historical drama, Silence, and it's possible The Devil In The White City could be next after that. Certainly that's what Paramount must want after shelling out a hefty sum to acquire the book's rights.
