20th Century/Disney Acquires Martin Scorsese’s Hawaii-Set Crime Epic

We have no idea what Martin Scorsese’s next film will be, but at least there's some movement with one of his percolating projects in development.

Disney/20th Century has acquired the rights to Scorese’s upcoming Hawaii-set crime epic starring Dwayne Johnson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Emily Blunt. Still no word on when this one will start production.

The thumbnail description (via Deadline):

Imagine Robert De Niro’s Goodfellas’ Jimmy the Gent character, but as a ruthless Hawaiian crime boss, also based on a real figure, who battled encroaching rivals for control of organized crime in Hawaii.

For a moment there, it did look as though Scorsese’s ‘Irishman’ backer Netflix had the edge in acquiring the Hawaii-set project, some of the other higher bidders included Amazon and Apple, with Warner Bros. With $200M above-the-line expenses on this movie, it does look like 20th Century is ready to take the hit.

Set in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Scorsese’s film is said to follow an aspiring mob boss (Johnson) who fights rival crime factions for control of the underworld of the Hawaiian islands. Scorsese has hired Vanity Fair journalist, and doc filmmaker, Nick Bilton to write the screenplay.

Last we checked, the script hadn’t been completed yet, and DiCaprio is going to be busy this summer shooting Damien Chazelle’s next film. He then has promo to do on Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” in September. Scorsese can still, technically, shoot one of his other percolating projects this year, but definitely not “Devil in the White City” or “Sinatra” which are both supposed to star DiCaprio.

So, with the knowledge of DiCaprio’s busy schedule, which will include Chazelle’s film and promotion of Paul Thomas Anderson’s fall-tipped “One Battle After Another,” what’s Scorsese's next film going to be? I’m still banking on the smaller-scaled Marillyne Robinson adaptation “Home” to shoot sometime this year.