Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio have already landed a new film with Apple TV Plus, this one being an adaptation of the survival story titled The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by author David Grann.
The Wager adaptation will mark Scorsese and DiCaprio's second joint collaboration with Apple TV Plus. The duo most recently worked on Killers of the Flower Moon for the streamer, which was also adapted from a novel by Grann and depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Scorsese is attached to directThe Wager film while DiCaprio will star. Scorsese is also serving as a producer through Sikelia Productions while DiCaprio is on board as a producer alongside partner Jennifer Davisson through their Appian Way Productions. Also producing are Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas of Imperative Entertainment, while Richard Plepler is on board as executive produce through his Eden Productions. The Wager will mark Scorsese and DiCaprio's seventh feature film together, with their five collaborations before Killers of the Flower Moon being Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island, and The Wolf of Wall Street.
The Wager is set in the 1740s and follows the crew members of a British ship that was chasing a Spanish vessel and crashed on an island in the Patagonia region of South America. After one group of men ends up on the coast of Brazil, their efforts to survive result in them being hailed as heroes. However, six months later, another boat arrives on the coast of Chile carrying three different men who accuse the first group of survivors of being mutineers, which causes the British Admiralty to launch a special trial in order to uncover the truth. Apple TV Plus secured the rights to The Wager novel ahead of its release in April 2023.
Between Netflix's The Irishman, Killers of the Flower Moon, and The Wager, it appears Scorsese has found a home with streaming services. This should not be surprising considering Scorsese's critcism of Marvel films was, in part, due to Hollywood's reluctance to invest in films that weren't connected to an already existing IP. With streamers increasingly snatching up more prestige films, they seem to have found a perfect partner in Scorsese.
The Wager is in development at Apple TV Plus.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter