Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese to Adapt Shipwreck Survival Story ‘The Wager’ for Apple
Samantha Bergeson
Martin Scorsese is set to direct another adaptation starring Leonardo DiCaprio for Apple Original Films.
THR first reported that Oscar winner Scorsese will team up again with Academy Award winner DiCaprio for a seventh feature collaboration. Based on David Grann’s non-fiction book “The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder,” the film is centered on a shipwreck in 1742. The book will be published next year.
Grann also penned “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which Scorsese also adapted for an Apple Original film starring DiCaprio, slated for a 2023 release.
“The Wager” will be directed by Scorsese with DiCaprio starring in the lead role. Producers include Scorsese via Sikelia Productions and DiCaprio and partner Jennifer Davisson via their Appian Way Productions, and Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas of Imperative Entertainment. Richard Plepler will executive produce through his banner, Eden Productions.
Apple landed the rights to the book detailing how 30 men landed on the coast of Brazil after surviving the shipwreck of a British vessel that was chasing a Spanish ship and crashed onto an island off South America. The survivors were deemed heroes. Yet six months later, another ship ended up on the coast of Chile carrying three men. The new sailors alleged their former crew mates were actually mutineers, igniting a special trial set by the British Admiralty to find out what really happened on the island.
DiCaprio and Scorsese have worked together on “Gangs of New York,” “The Aviator,” “The Departed,” “Shutter Island,” and “The Wolf of Wall Street,” soon to be followed by 1920s-set period piece “Killers of the Flower Moon” which follows the mysterious killings in oil-rich Osage Nation in Oklahoma.
“Killers of the Flower Moon” was anticipated for a 2022 release but Apple has since confirmed its 2023 theatrical date. Robert De Niro and Jesse Plemons also star alongside DiCaprio, with Chief of the Osage Nation Geoffrey Standing Bear serving as a consultant on the $200 million film.
“The Wager” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” author Grann was also behind the book “The Lost City of Z” and the New Yorker article “The Old Man and the Gun,” which were both adapted to the screen. His other non-fiction book “The White Darkness” is being developed by “Pachinko” showrunner Soo Hugh as an Apple Original limited series starring Tom Hiddleston.
IndieWire has reached out to reps for Apple for comment.
