The Devil in the White City is a forthcoming 2016 psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese from a script by Billy Ray (The Hunger Games) and starring Leonardo DiCaprio (Shutter Island). The film is based on a 2003 non-fiction book, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson.
The book is set in Chicago, circa 1893, intertwining the true tales of Daniel H. Burnham, the architect behind the 1893 World’s Fair, and Dr. H. H. Holmes (DiCaprio), the serial killer who lured his victims to their deaths in his elaborately constructed “Murder Castle, which contained a gas chamber, crematorium and a dissecting table where Holmes would murder his victims and strip their skeletons to sell for medical and scientific study…
Deadline.com has reported that Paramount have acquired the rights to Larson’s book after a Hollywood bidding war. Appian Way’s DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson will be producing the movie along with Stacey Sher, Scorsese and Emma Tillinger Koskoff.
Image thanks: Frank Geyer
