One of Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese’s longest-gestating projects just got a major new boost.

Their film adaptation of Erik Larson’s 2004 nonfiction book The Devil In The White City now has the back of 20th Century Studios, sources told ᴅᴇᴀᴅline on Wednesday.

According to the publication, DiCaprio is again in talks to star in the nonfiction serial killer thriller, while Scorsese is negotiating to direct the project.

The movie follows their last collaboration, the acclaimed Western crime epic Killers Of The Flower Moon.

Although the news is promising for fans of DiCaprio and Scorsese’s many collaborations, they shouldn’t get their hopes up too much, as the project has been in various stages of discussions since the Wolf Of Wall Street star bought the rights to the nonfiction history back in 2010. 

The film had previously been planned as a feature film at Paramount, with DiCaprio starring and Scorsese directing, but that version of the project fell through. 

Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese’s long-gestation project Devil In The White City got a boost on Wednesday when ᴅᴇᴀᴅline reported that 20th Century Studios is moving forward with a film intended for theatrical exhibition; seen in 2023 in Las Vegas

The movie, which would star DiCaprio and be directed by Scorsese, is adapted from Erik Larson’s bestselling nonfiction crime tale The Devil In The White City, about the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and the serial killer H. H. Holmes

It was reconsтιтuted as a limited series for Hulu in 2022, with Keanu Reeves set to star and Tár director Todd Field to helm the project, but that fell through just two months after it was announced when both exited the project.

Now, DiCaprio may get a chance to bring the chilling history to life with his good friend and regular collaborator Scorsese, with whom he has been working since 2002’s Gangs Of New York.

Read More Keanu Reeves drops out of upcoming Hulu limited series Devil In The White City… as Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese are set to produce

According to ᴅᴇᴀᴅline, the two would produce their upcoming film, along with Stacey Sher, Rick Yorn and Jennifer Davisson, who is DiCaprio’s partner at his production company Appian Way.

Sources said that a recent meeting with executives at 20th Century — formerly 20th Century Fox before Disney bought it — went well enough that they wanted to move forward with a theatrical adaptation of Larson’s book.

Despite having been tossed around for more than a decade, there isn’t currently a screenplay for Devil In The White City.

Larson’s book, which is subтιтled Murder, Magic And Madness At The Fair That Changed America, tells a dual story set around the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.

The book, which is structured more like a novel than a traditional history, juxtaposes the feats of the World’s Fair architect Daniel Burnham with the grisly crimes of the early American serial killer H. H. Holmes.

Holmes, who ran a H๏τel in Chicago at the time, was only ever tried and convicted of murdering one person, but he was believed to have killed several other people, and he confessed to having murdered 27, though several of his alleged victims later turned out to still be alive.

DiCaprio bought the rights back in 2010, and he and Scorsese were attached for Paramount before the project fell apart. Keanu Reeves later signed on to a Hulu limited series version directed by Todd Field, but that also fell apart in 2022; seen in 2019 in Santa Barbara, Calif.

DiCaprio most recently worked with Scorsese on the Oscar-nominated crime epic Killers Of The Flower Moon (pictured). Their collaborations have earned $1.3 billion over the years

The sensationalist newspapers of the era dubbed the H๏τel he ran a ‘murder castle,’ and it was claimed that it had secret rooms for torturing guests, as well as trapdoors and a gas chamber.

However, most of these claims were later shown to be serious exaggerations or complete fabrications.

This would be the seventh project for DiCaprio and Scorsese if it comes to fruition.

They first worked together on 2002’s Gangs Of New York, and quickly followed that up with the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator and the Oscar-winning The Departed, which earned Scorsese his first — and so far only — Academy Award for best director. 

They reunited in 2010 for the thriller Shutter Island, before making their most commercially successful film to date in 2013 with The Wolf Of Wall Street. 

DiCaprio worked with Scorsese’s other great acting inspiration, Robert DeNiro, on the short film The Audition in 2015, but their last major theatrical release was 2023’s Killers Of The Flower Moon, which was released by Paramount and Apple TV+.

All of their films have been hits with critics, with several already attraction modern masterpiece status, and they have proved to have one of the most profitable creative partnerships in film after earning $1.3 billion together.