Variety reports that Martin Scorsese is looking to direct Leonardo DiCaprio in the film adaptation of Jordan Belfort’s upcoming tell-all autobiography The Wolf of Wall Street for Warner Bros. Pictures, with “The Sopranos” scribe Terence Winter aboard to write.
Alexandra Milchan will produce with DiCaprio’s company Appian Way, which has a first-look deal with Warners. Scorsese’s Sikelia Productions is attached to produce.
It’s unknown, however, where “Wolf” stands on the list of potential directing projects that have been announced for Scorsese since the Academy Awards.
Milchan, daughter of producer Arnon Milchan, and literary agent Joel Gotler decided to go with Warners because of the Scorsese-DiCaprio combo offered by Appian Way and the studio, although no official deals are in place for Scorsese to direct or DiCaprio to star.
In The Wolf of Wall Street DiCaprio would play Belfort, a Long Island penny stockbroker who served 20 months in prison for refusing to cooperate in a massive 1990s securities fraud case that involved widespread corruption on Wall Street and in the corporate banking world, including mob infiltration.
Bantam Books publishes the autobiography in September.
Like Catch Me if You Can, “Wolf” would be a two-hander with a key part for a second star: Much of the film would hinge on Belfort’s relationship with the FBI agent who tried to make him an informant.
Winter is expected to begin adapting the book immediately.
At Paramount, Scorsese is developing with an eye to direct The Long Play, a rock ‘n’ roll epic to be penned by “Departed” screenwriter William Monahan. He’s also attached to direct the big screen adaptation of Eric Jager’s historical novel Last Duel: A True Story of Crime.
Over at Warners, the studio and Graham King’s Initial Entertainment Group recently picked up the screen rights to Brian Selznick children’s novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret as a potential directing vehicle for Scorsese.
DiCaprio’s next movie will be the film adaptation of Richard Yates’ 1961 book Revolutionary Road, reuniting him with Kate Winslet.
