Apple TV+ Lands Rights to Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese Movie

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Apple Original Films has acquired the film rights to a big screen adaptation of David Grann’s upcoming nonfiction book, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder.

Set in the 1740s, Wager’s story is set in motion when a patched-together boat with 30 emaciated men lands on the coast of Brazil. The men were the surviving crew of a British ship that was chasing a Spanish vessel and had crashed onto an island in South America’s Patagonia region. Their tales of surviving the seas and elements made them heroes.

Grann’s novel is due out in April 2023. The movie adaptation will star Leonardo DiCaprio, with Martin Scorsese signing on as director. It will be produced by Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas of Imperative Entertainment, which was also behind the currently-running limited Apple TV+ series Black Bird, starring Taron Egerton.

DiCaprio, Scorsese, and Imperative are just coming off working on Flower Moon, the film adaptation of Grann’s true-crime tome Killers of the Flower Moon, in the same capacities. Flower Moon was also produced for Apple, and Robert De Niro joined DiCaprio to lead the period crime drama.

Scorsese will co-produce the project through Sikelia Productions, along with DiCaprio and partner Jennifer Davisson via Appian Way Productions. Richard Plepler will executive produce through his banner, Eden Productions.

There is no word yet on when the film adaptation of The Wager will finally make its way to the big screen.

Apple has signed first-look film and TV deals with both Sikelia Productions and DiCaprio’s banner, Appian Way.