It seems portraying despicable charmer Jordan Belfort in 2013's The Wolf of Wall Street has given Leonardo Di Caprio a taste for bad, because he'll be playing an outright psychopath in his next outing with director Martin Scorsese. The two are reuniting for an adaptation of Erik Larson's nonfiction book The Devil in the White City for Paramount. The book follows events at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, where amid the lights and fanfare, a serial killer was at work. The murderer in question, Dr. HH Holmes will be played by Di Caprio, with screenwriting duties falling to pedigreed scribe Billy Ray (The Hunger Games & Shattered Glass). Apparently there was a ton of other interest from competing studios like Universal and Fox for the books' rights, but Paramount snapped them up as soon as Scorsese and Di Caprio showed interest. Apparently Ray's take on the material was very central to piquing such distinguished interest, and that's obviously still an unknown quantity. What's transparently exciting is a sixth reunion of Di Caprio and Scorsese, who now possess the sort of creative synergy which makes doubting them, if not an impossibility, then at least very, very risky. They've nailed an assortment of periods together (from lower Manhattan in the 1800s all the way to Wall Street in the 1980s) and always find unique, expressive and captivating ways of merging narrative and world-building. However, neither man is particularly seasoned when it comes to true Grand-Guignol depravity, and based on the killings conducted by Holmes, that's what we'll be getting. This could be a fascinating stretch, but one you'd imagine they'll executed with absolute panache. The film will doubtlessly be ready for an Oscar race in the not-to-distant future.
