Movie Matchmaker: Martin Scorsese's The Devil in the White City
by Brian Tallerico

ALTERNATES

Aja would be okay, Fincher would be spectacular, but our gut tells us neither of those directors will eventually helm The Devil in the White City, so let's start theorizing. Who can handle serial killers? Jonathan Demme certainly did in The Silence of the Lambs, but he's not the right fit and doesn't seem interested in movies of this scope anymore. Michael Mann wouldn't be a bad choice, but he's not a bad choice for anything and he would focus too much on the technical aspects of filming a project like this one. There's SO much to Devil in the White City that it would probably drive a perfectionist like Mann crazy. An unusual but excellent alternate would be Christopher Nolan, a man who proved he can handle magic like the kind seen at the World's Fair with his underrated The Prestige, and he would draw the talent and budget needed to pull off a project like this one (which, sorry to say, Aja would NOT). On the crazy side of the alternate ledger, consider if you will, Oliver Stone. He knows killers (Natural Born Killers), he knows obsessive personalities (Nixon, Alexander), and he's amazing with detail - sometimes too much so. There's something about Oliver Stone's Devil in the White City that we think would be truly fascinating, but only if one man remains unavailable...

THE MATCH

Martin Scorsese. We could probably fill every Movie Matchmaker with arguably the best director alive, but this fit makes more sense than most. Even though we agree that he can do anything he wants, we probably wouldn't suggest Scorsese for something like American Gods, Ghost in the Shell, or The Legend of Zelda (although we'd pay to see THAT movie just to see Leo play Link and Bobby D play Ganon). But The Devil in the White City is a perfect fit for Marty and not just because his buddy DiCaprio has expressed interest in playing Holmes. Scorsese has always been fascinated with the way that power and violence often go hand-in-hand, and he knows a thing or two about obsessive personalities. Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver), Jake LaMotta (Raging Bull), Henry Hill (GoodFellas), Bill "The Butcher" Cutting (Gangs of New York), and, of course, Howard Hughes (The Aviator) were all men obsessed with power or their lack of it. Both Daniel Burnham and H.H. Holmes fit perfectly into Scorsese's filmography of characters. And consider Scorsese's incredible eye for period in films like The Age of Innocence, Gangs of New York, and even The Aviator. The period detail in those movies is insanely accomplished, something whomever directs The Devil in the White City is going to have to bring to the project for it to work. There are plenty of filmmakers who will skew the focus to Holmes' torture chambers because gore is easy, but there are only a few who could fully recreate what the World's Fair must have been like for turn-of-the-century America. Much of the praise surrounding Devil in the White City noted how much it read like a movie. We think it read like not just any movie, but an Oscar-winning Scorsese-directed film.

Could it happen? Well, Leo has buzzed around this character for years, and he'd be a good fit for Holmes. Plus DiCaprio and Scorsese are working together again, right now, in an adaptation of Dennis Lehane's Shutter Island. In other words, they'll be free at the same time. It was recently announced back in February that Marty will be working on a Bob Marley documentary on top of the previously announced George Harrison doc after SI but, come on, the man who made The Last Waltz, No Direction Home, and Shine a Light can pound out a brilliant music documentary on a weekend. Somewhere in the mix, he's reportedly heading into The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (once again, with Leo in the lead role) and is attached to an adaptation of Shusaku Endo's Silence for an upcoming release. Delay Silence after the Marley doc and stick with Leo for one more film - The Devil in the White City. If they act over the next couple of years on the project, they can move into The White City when DiCaprio will be nearing his mid-30s. Holmes committed his crimes from 1893 to 1895 when he would have been 33 to 35 years old. It's almost TOO perfect a fit. But that's what Movie Matchmaker is here for - to point out the obvious. Marty already finally got his Oscar a couple years ago. Don't you think he deserves (at least) two? That second Oscar is waiting for him in The White City.