Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese are teaming up once again for an adaptation of another book from David Grann, the author of “Killers of the Flower Moon” – this time teaming on a project called “The Wager.”
Apple Original Films has acquired the rights to the book, which will release next year, and like their collaboration on the upcoming “Flower Moon,” the project has DiCaprio attached to star and Scorsese to direct.
Grann’s book tells the true story of a British naval ship called the Wager from 1742 that crashed and washed up on the coast of Brazil, marooning 30 survivors for months before they managed to make it back to shores and safety. But the story takes a turn when a few months later, a different set of just three survivors arrived in Chile and told a different story, saying that the men were not hero survivors but mutineers, and that the crew descended into anarchy while stranded on the island. Here’s the logline for the film:
After the British naval ship the Wager is wrecked on a desolate island off the tip of South America, the captain and crew must struggle to survive and maintain order while battling not only the most extreme elements but their own human natures.
“The Wager” will be produced by Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas of Imperative Entertainment, Martin Scorsese of Sikelia Productions and Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson of Appian Way Productions. Richard Plepler will executive produce for Eden Productions. No screenwriter was disclosed.
Audiences are eagerly awaiting “Killers of the Flower Moon,” the first collaboration between Scorsese, DiCaprio, Grann and Apple, which is set in 1920s Oklahoma and depicts the serial murders of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation, a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror. “Flower Moon” stars Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Lily Gladstone, Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion, William Belleau, Louis Cancelmi, Tatanka Means, Michael Abbott Jr., Pat Healy, Scott Shepherd and Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriters Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson.
While many were expecting the film to be an Oscar contender for 2022, a report from Deadline earlier this week suggested the film may wind up holding for release until 2023 and could include a premiere at the Cannes Film Festival next year. No official release date has been set, and the film is in post-production.
And “The Wager” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” aren’t the only projects Apple is adapting based on David Grann books. They’re also co-producing “The White Darkness” as an Apple Original limited series starring Tom Hiddleston and developed by Soo Hugh (“Pachinko,” “The Terror”), who will also co-showrun and serve as executive producer. Apple also collaborated with Friedkin’s Imperative Entertainment on the Taron Egerton limited series “Black Bird.”
Grann is represented by CAA and The Robbins Office.
THR first reported the news.
