Is that the face that can lure you to a World’s Fair Hotel gas chamber or what?
According to The Hollywood Reporter, DiCaprio has attached himself to project 3,937, a long awaited and delayed adaptation of Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City. Based
on the true story of the 1893 World’s Fair, it follows two men
intimately involved with the fairgrounds. One is architect Daniel H.
Burnham who is racing to complete the fair’s grounds and the famous
“White City” at its heart.
The other is the charismatic murderer
H.H. Holmes, who designed the World’s Fair Hotel and implemented many
personal touches for himself. Later nicknamed “The Murder Castle”, it
featured gas chambers, airless rooms for smothering, chutes for bodies, a
crematorium, and a stretching rack. He confessed to 27 murders, only 9
were confirmed, and historians believe the body count may even be
higher. This delightful chap will be who DiCaprio plays. He certainly
has the charisma necessary to lure innocents to his magical hotel, and
then dissect them for laughs. And we know he looks good in old-timey hats, so win-win.
As fans
of the book probably remember, many famous people have circled White
City over the years. Tom Cruise was attached to star and produce at one
point with Paula Wagner, and Kathryn Bigelow was once in line to direct
and produce.
Now it falls to DiCaprio, who will also be
producing the film as part of his busy Appian Way
productions. It remains set up under Paramount’s Double Feature
shingle. Appian Way is currently on the hunt for a writer or a
writer-director to help wrangle Larson’s book. Will this be its lucky
break? Or will it get lost in DiCaprio’s many, many projects and fall
back into the swirl of original, unmade stories just begging to be made
already?