Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio are teaming up again, according to The Hollywood Reporter, to get a head start on the delayed release of their Oscar candidate Killers of the Flower Moon. If all goes according to plan, Scorsese may have predicted an Oscar-winning threesome. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder, by New York Times bestselling author David Grann, has apparently been acquired by Apple Original Films, with Scorsese and DiCaprio scheduled to helm and act, respectively. Taking place in the early 1740s, The Wager is a period piece about the landing of a disorganised ship on Brazil’s shores. In the improvised raft, a story of remarkable survival is told by the skeletal corpses of 30 men who had survived a harrowing trip.
The crew of the Wager, a British ship charged with following a Spanish fleet that was transporting a treasure known as “the prize of all the oceans,” is said to be what’s left of the crew. Wager’s crew was forced to confront famine and the weather after their ship sank off the coast of Patagonia while searching for riches. It took them nearly three months to sail 2500 miles over treacherous seas before they were acclaimed as heroes in Brazil. Three guys who washed up on Chilean shores six months after the initial shipwreck have a far harsher view of what transpired on the island. The first thirty castaways are accused by the three men of being mutineers.
In the ensuing back-and-forth, the crew’s state of anarchy, which had developed while they were stranded on the island, is finally brought under control. Admiralty declares a court martial to find out the facts, and any found guilty will be executed. Before this news, Scorsese and DiCaprio collaborated for the sixth time on the highly anticipated historical crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon, which is currently scheduled for a Cannes debut in 2023. An FBI investigation into the strange killings of Osage Tribal members is the focus of the picture, which also stars Scorsese muse Robert De Niro, Brendan Fraser, and Lily Gladstone as well as DiCaprio.
Grann, the author of The Wager, also wrote the script, for which he was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award. Throughout his half-century in the film industry, Martin Scorsese has earned several distinctions for his work as a director. To name a few of Scorsese’s works, Taxi Driver is one of his most well-known films. He also directed the Oscar-winning films Goodfellas and The Wolf of Wall Street. His works are known for pushing the boundaries of cinema and for their determined, aggressive aesthetic. Since Gangs of New York two decades ago, he and Leonardo DiCaprio have worked together on films including The Aviator and The Wolf of Wall Street, both of which won DiCaprio Oscar nods.
Scorsese, DiCaprio, and Jennifer Davisson, along with Bradley Thomas and Dan Friedkin of Imperative Entertainment, will produce The Wager under their Appian Way Productions banner. The film will be executive produced by Eden Productions’ Richard Plepler. No further cast members have been revealed as of yet. This year, you can pre-order Grann’s novel The Wager: A Tale of Shipwrecked Mutiny and Murder from Penguin Random House. They also have Killers of the Flower Moon, which will be released in theatres by Paramount in 2019.