Apple TV+ has been dominating viewers' screens since its November 2019 launch, quickly rising in priority on users' subscribed lists. The streamer has attached Martin Scorsese to The Wager, based on author David Grann's historical nonfiction epic, with Leonardo DiCaprio set to star. This will be Scorsese and DiCaprio's seventh project together, after movies like The Wolf of Wall Street, Gangs of New York, The Departed, Shutter Island, as well as the recently released Killers of the Flower Moon, also starring Robert De Niro. What can we expect from this all-star duo's seventh reunion on the screen?

Imperative Entertainment's Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas are producing with Scorsese via Sikelia Productions, while DiCaprio and his partner Jennifer Davisson will produce through their company Appian Way Productions. The executive producer is Richard Pleper through the Eden Productions banner. Apple TV also released Killers of the Flower Moon, and it is clear that the streaming service is very interested in keeping Scorsese in their stable of filmmakers. A lot of weight is being thrown behind this project, so let's jump into what Scorsese and DiCaprio fans should know about The Wager and Grann's critically acclaimed novels!

Updated October 20th, 2023: This article has been updated to incoprorate up-to-date information on Martin Scorsese's The Wager.

The Wager: The Plot

Bestselling author David Grann's recently released epic novel, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder, came out to acclaim in April 2023. A tale of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder, according to preliminary descriptions (and the descriptive title). The novel centers on thirty barely alive and emaciated men who washed ashore in Brazil on a desperately improvised raft on January 28th, 1742. The men are survivors of a top-secret treasure-hunting ship, His Majesty's The Wager. During the imperial war with Spain, the shipwrecked while in pursuit of "the prize of all oceans," a Spanish ship loaded with priceless valuables.

After months of being stranded on a desert island, the surviving men built the raft and drifted at sea for a hundred days before landing as heroes on the shores of Brazil. This isn't even the story's most interesting part, but what happens next is.

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Six months after this event, a raft in even worse shape washes ashore in Chile, hosting three castaways who had a very different perspective of the events recounted by the thirty. According to these three castaways, the thirty heroes of The Wager were guilty of the worst treason imaginable in His Majesty's navy: they were mutineers. Accusations fly, and the stakes are acquittal or execution in Grann's intense tale of loyalty and betrayal, truth and lie anarchy and duty.

The book quickly became a bestseller, topping The New York Times best-seller list in the nonfiction category for the first week of its publication. After twenty-four weeks, it was still at #10 on their list of best-selling hardcover non-fiction books. Scorsese and DiCaprio acquired the screen rights to the book in 2022 before it was even released, having already adapted Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon.

The Wager: The Cast & Crew

The only known names attached to the film at this point are Scorsese and DiCaprio. ​​​​​The harshly divided subject matter of The Wager gives the legendary filmmaker a lot to sink his teeth into as a master craftsman. It is certain to be another committed performance by DiCaprio, who also made the survival drama The Revenant so unforgettable. The Wager is a story with human drama, gruesome visuals, and unforgiving motivation, which is right up Scorsese's alley.

The international setting and enormous implications of the story's premise are very contained to this one time period, this particular affair, and this era of dominance of the British Navy. We can only assume Scorsese will capitalize on its broader themes and relevance to the larger population. All he needs is DiCaprio to bring it to life.

We look forward to hearing more casting announcements in the months to come.

Other Related Projects to Be Excited About

This isn't the only Grann novel that Apple TV+ will be adapting. Tom Hiddleston is set to headline and executive produce the film The White Darkness, a harrowing polar exploration drama based on the novel of the same name with Soo Hugh and Mark Heyman. The long-awaited Scorsese-directed Killers of the Flower Moon, based on the Grann novel, was recently released in theaters and has garnered rave reviews and early Oscar talk. It was also produced by Imperative and is set in an oil-wealthy Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma.

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Grann has proven himself to be an engrossing, dynamic novelist, and it is exciting that the mammoth Apple streaming service has so eagerly devoured his works. Seeing such original and prolific authors get their due in mainstream Hollywood is an inspiring development for cinephiles desperate for new, never-before-seen stories. There have been a lot of complaints that mainstream Hollywood has been made up of a few too many sequels as of late, so Apple TV's continuation of its reputation as a hub for brand-new blockbuster content is music to many ears. It's about time more new novels, especially ones as unique and special as Grann's, are seized and developed for TV-watching audiences.

Martin Scorsese's Future as a Filmmaker?

While on media duties with his latest movie, Killers of the Flower Moon, the 80-year-old legend has been discussing his forthcoming projects, confirming in an interview with The Times that he would be shooting the screen adaptation of The Wager next. Commenting on the time he has left making movies, Scorsese told The Times:

“I don’t want to slow down… At my age, your body tells you at a certain point you need to pace yourself, but I’m still searching for, as I mentioned earlier, the answer to how we take care of each other. I thought that my films should reflect that. I have tried the best that I can.”

Will Killers of the Flower Moon Delayed Release Impact The Wager?

In all, it took the decorated director an entire six years to make Killers of the Flower Moon. Having conceived the idea of adapting the novel around the time he was developing The Irishman, the movie was put on the back burner, with the gangster epic taking precedence. After The Irishman’s release in 2019, the focus turned to Killers of the Flower Moon, with production set to start at the beginning of 2020. Due to the unforeseeable disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, the shooting was subject to a lengthy delay. As such, November 2022 became the new targeted date for release. With questions raised over the Oscar nomination process and the closeness in proximity, Killers of the Flower Moon was, once again, held back. The new release date of May 2023 was then deemed too far away from Awards season and, as such, was moved to October 20, 2023. It would be safe to assume that due to the backlog of delays, progress with The Wager has been hampered somewhat. The Wagner is not the only film Scorsese has in development. In May 2023, Scorsese said he was considering writing and directing a new film about Jesus during a meeting with Pope Francis. Yet nothing about that project has been confirmed. As of this writing, The Wagner is Scorsese's next confirmed project. Looking back over Scorsese’s 26-strong catalog of stellar feature films, in most instances, the New Yorker has typically waited between one and three years per release, but now at 80, and The Wager is already in the works and filming is set to commence within the next year, it can be assumed the movie will be released sometime in 2025.