Martin Scorsese’s answer to Netflix’s ix-nay on auteur passion projects like The Irishman? Taking all that action over to Apple Original Films. After reuniting with Leonardo DiCaprio for the first time since 2013's The Wolf Of Wall Street for Apple’s upcoming Killers Of The Flower Moon, DiCaprio and Scorsese have already signed on for another joint project at the streamer, a shipwreck thriller titled The Wager.
The Hollywood Reporter confirms that Scorsese has signed on to direct an adaptation of New Yorker journalist David Grann’s to-be-released non-fiction book The Wager: A Tale Of Shipwreck, Mutiny, And Murder, which Apple swiftly snapped up the rights to. Although the book won’t even be released until spring 2023, Grann is also the author behind the true crime tome of the same title that Killers Of The Flower Moon is based on. Clearly, there’s some Grann Stans at the streamer.
The new book takes place in the 1700s, and chronicles the titular British naval ship and its crew. After a Spanish treasure-hunting mission gone wrong leaves the Wager shipwrecked on a remote island off the coast of Patagonia, natural selection, anarchy, and animalistic violence sets in among the survivors. When those who are left return to civilization, they find themselves on opposite ends of a large-scale trial chock full of murder and treachery accusations. It’s giving Lost for European History majors! It’s giving Yellowjackets but with treasure seafaring instead of soccer! For a book my scruffy-bearded Caucasian father surely already has on pre-order, it’s giving a lot!
Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas are producing the project through Imperative Entertainment. Scorsese and DiCaprio will also both serve as producers, Scorsese via Sikelia Productions and DiCaprio alongside partner Jennifer Davisson via their Appian Way Productions.
The Wager still has yet to receive a release date, but Killers Of The Flower Moon has been tentatively slated for a May 2023 release. Word on the street says Apple is hoping for a premiere at Cannes or Venice next year, a clear ploy to compete with Netflix’s high-level 2022 festival showings, which include Noah Baumbach’s Venice opener White Noise and the highly anticipated Ana de Armas-led Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde.