Leonardo DiCaprio is attached to star in an adaptation of David Grann’s book The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder from director Martin Scorsese that has been set up at Apple, Deadline can confirm. The project follows the pair’s collaboration on Apple’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which is likewise based on a non-fiction book by Grann.
The film set in the 1740s will watch as the British naval ship the Wager is wrecked on a desolate island off the tip of South America, with the captain and crew then struggling to survive and maintain order, while battling not only the most extreme elements but their own human natures.
It’s not yet clear who will handle the screenplay adaptation for The Wager. But Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas will produce for Imperative Entertainment, along with Scorsese for Sikelia Productions and DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson for Appian Way Productions, with Eden Productions’ Richard Plepler serving as EP.
DiCaprio will next be seen in the 1920s Oklahoma-set Killers of the Flower Moon, which depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation, a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror. He most recently appeared in the end-of-the-world comedy Don’t Look Up, which Adam McKay directed for Netflix.
Oscar winner Scorsese most recently released the acclaimed Netflix miniseries Pretend It’s a City centered on Fran Lebowitz and the Netflix crime drama The Irishman, which landed 10 Oscar nominations in 2020.
Imperative produced Scorsese’s Killers and most recently released the acclaimed Apple limited series Black Bird, staring Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser, which is winding down toward its August 5th conclusion.
DiCaprio is repped by LBI Entertainment and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller; Scorsese by WME, LBI Entertainment and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller; and Grann by CAA and The Robbins Office.
