Producer Stacey Sher says The Devil In The White City, the Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio project thought to be in development hell, is still happening.
It’s well over a decade since Leonardo DiCaprio picked up the film rights for author Erik Larsson’s non-fiction book, The Devil In The White City, but an adaptation of it is still alive and well. That’s according to producer Stacey Sher, who says that both DiCaprio and filmmaker Martin Scorsese are still involved in the project in some capacity.
First published in 2003, The Devil In The White City is part history, part crime thriller, taking in the creation of the Chicago World’s Fair and the exploits of murderer HH Holmes, who killed a number of people in Chicago as the expo took place in the 1890s. Its sprawling period detail would be expensive to realise in a film or TV production, which is likely why the project has been in some form of development hell since DiCaprio purchased its rights in 2010.
The actor originally intended to star in the adaptation himself, with his regular collaborator Scorsese directing; when that failed to happen at Paramount, the project passed to Hulu, where it was developed as an expensive TV series. Then it moved to ABC Signature, a subsidiary of Disney, where DiCaprio and Scorsese remained involved, but as executive producers. Among those attached to the series were Keanu Reeves and actor-director Todd Field. Curiously, even Tom Cruise wanted to play Holmes for a while.
The last time ABC Signature offered an updated on White City was in March 2023, when Deadline reported that the company “remains committed to the project and hopes to find [it] a new home.”
From what we can gather, that home still hasn’t been found, though Stacey Sher, speaking to Deadline, insists that it isn’t dead. “I’m still involved,” she said. “I never give up… It’s not imminent, but it’s not ever far from my mind.”
The case of HH Holmes has been the subject of fascination over the past 120 years or so; he was executed for his crimes in 1896, and was undoubtedly an unpleasant murderer and swindler, among other misdemeanours. Historians have long cast doubt on some of the more outlandish stories attached to Holmes, though, including the legend that he had his own ‘Murder Castle’ laden with elaborate traps like something out of a Saw sequel.
Holmes has nevertheless continued to pop up in the media in one form or another: Supermassive Games’ narrative adventure The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil In Me was directly inspired by Holmes, right down to his trap-laden Murder Castle.
Whether DiCaprio and Scorsese’s take on America’s first serial killer will ever happen remains to be seen, especially given they’ve already made one historical drama about an infamous string of murders together – that being Killers Of The Flower Moon.
We’ll bring you more as we hear it.
