Nov.2 2010

Leonardo DiCaprio to Play America’s First Serial Killer in ‘The Devil in the White City’

If there’s one thing that can be said about Leonardo DiCaprio, it’s that he’s an actor who continually strives to challenge himself. Coming off arguably the best year of his career with Shutter Island and Inception, Leo is currently slated to portray J. Edgar Hoover in Clint Eastwood’s upcoming biopic of the controversial co-founder of the FBI in Hoover. But one glaring omission in Leo’s already legendary career is playing a bad guy. Sure, he’s played a morally-ambiguous protagonist before, but he’s never been a full-fledged villain. Well, that’s all about to change as Deadline is reporting (via First Showing) that Leo is set to play America’s first serial killer in the big screen adaption of The Devil in the White City.

The story of The Devil in the White City follows the true events surrounding Dr. HH Holmes, a brilliant sociopath responsible for 27-200 murders in Chicago in 1893 as the city was hosting the famous World’s Fair. Not sure how they got that death toll, but it’s pretty crazy, nonetheless. As the story goes:

Holmes would use his charm and guile to lure guests into what became known as a “murder castle,” a haunt that had 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.

Sounds pretty frickin’ awesome to me. DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions will be spear-heading the project with Double features, who are currently searching for a screenwriter to pen the script before they shop it around to potential studios. But with this amazing true story and DiCaprio on board, I don’t think they’ll have any trouble finding a studio to foot the bill. And I bet every elite director in Hollywood is licking their chops for a chance to take this on. Should we just give him the Best Actor statue now?

What Do You Think? Discuss.

Categories : News

sjhuinker

This sounds AMAZING! Can't wait to see what director gets to nab this movie – have any names been thrown out there? UGH, I would LOVE to hand Leo the Best Actor Statue but you know Hollywood doesn't like him and he will never get one. He should have had one for Gilbert Grape (well Supporting there) and another for Aviator – his acting in that is WAY better than Jamie Foxx's performance in Ray. It's just a fact – Leo will never win an award. They like seeing him act and praise him for it, but he will never receive the full credit he deserves. And he is by far the best actor of his generation – just pisses me off! Thanks for the post though – this movie sounds a little eerie but reallllllly good
Kevin Wieken

The Hoover movie is gonna Kill!!! Eastwood?!?! I smell an Oscar… I've also heard a rumer of him playing Sinatra in Martin Scorsese's biopic of the great singer. Inception sucked.
Rabstown

Yeah totally, especially because it's made over $800 million, has an 87% on RT and is universally predicted to be nominated for double-digit Oscars. Yeah, what a shitty movie. How much is tuition at the Armond White Academy of Contrarian-Troll Douchebagery?
Mooosh

I think you mistook his comment for Inception got its dick SUCKED by any movie that had the misfortune of openin the same year as the mighty Inception! Anywhooooo… Leo as a sociopath ain't too much of a stretch for me. DiCaprio has shown over and over again from the obsessed Hughes, to the deranged and unstable Teddy Daniels. Doing some research I've discovered Holmes was a polygamist and married a woman here in Murder-apolis. Poss on-set filming… Maoush???