The project, which has been in the works for more than a decade, reunites DiCaprio with Scorsese two years after “The Wolf of Wall Street.” 
 
 Paramount won an auction to buy the movie rights to Erik Larson’s book “The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America.” The studio has previously owned the rights twice. Billy Ray, whose credits include “Captain Phillips” and “The Hunger Games,” will write the script. Producers are DiCaprio and his Appian Way partner Jennifer Davisson along with Stacey Sher, Scorsese, Rick Yorn and Emma Koskoff. Set against the backdrop of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, “The Devil in the White City” tells the intertwining stories of fair architect Daniel H. Burnham and Holmes, who used a hotel he built near the fairgrounds to lure his victims. Besides “The Wolf of Wall Street,” DiCaprio and Scorsese have made “Gangs of New York,” “The Aviator,” “The Departed” and “Shutter Island” together. LBI reps DiCaprio, Appian Way and Scorsese (who’s also with WME), and CAA, Management 36o and attorney Peter Nichols rep Ray. Larson is repped by APA and David Black Literary Agency.
– Leonardo DiCaprio will play to his dark side for a new role as "the 19th century equivalent of Hannibal Lecter," reports Deadline. He'll play serial killer HH Holmes in the film adaptation of Erik Larson's 2003 book, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, And Madness At The Fair That Changed America, which will be directed by Martin Scorsese for Paramount. The book follows Holmes' killing of at least 27 people (mainly women) around the time of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago—though he had as many as 200 victims—combined with the story of fair architect Daniel Burnham, Variety reports. The film has been in the works for more than a decade. (Read about a possible "good guy" role for DiCaprio.)