After Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio reunite for The Wager on Apple TV+. What to know!
Since November 2019, Apple TV+ has dominated viewers’ screens and rapidly risen in subscribers’ lists. The Wager, based on David Grann’s historical nonfiction epic, will star Leonardo DiCaprio and be directed by Martin Scorsese. This will be Scorsese and DiCaprio’s seventh film together, following The Wolf of Wall Street, Gangs of New York, The Departed, Shutter Island, and the recently released Killers of the Flower Moon, starring Robert De Niro. This all-star duo’s seventh screen reunion—what can we expect?
Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas of Imperative Entertainment’s Sikelia Productions are producing with Scorsese, while DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson of Appian Way Productions will produce. Eden Productions’ Richard Pleper is the executive producer. Apple TV released Killers of the Flower Moon, showing that the streaming service wants Scorsese on board. This project is heavily supported, so let’s talk about The Wager and Grann’s critically acclaimed novels for Scorsese and DiCaprio fans!
On October 20, 2023, this article was updated to include current information on Martin Scorsese’s The Wager.
The Wager: The Plot
In April 2023, best-selling author David Grann published The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder. A shipwreck, mutiny, and murder story, per preliminary descriptions and title. The novel follows thirty emaciated men who washed ashore in Brazil on a makeshift raft on January 28, 1742. The men survived His Majesty’s The Wager, a top-secret treasure ship. During the imperial war with Spain, the shipwrecked while pursuing “the prize of all oceans,” a Spanish ship with precious goods.
The surviving men built the raft and drifted at sea for 100 days before landing as heroes in Brazil after months on a desert island. No, the story’s most interesting part is what follows.
Three castaways with a different view of the thirty’s events wash up in Chile six months later on a raft in worse condition. According to these three castaways, The Wager’s thirty heroes were mutineers, the worst treason in His Majesty’s navy. It’s acquittal or execution in Grann’s intense tale of loyalty and betrayal, truth and lie, anarchy and duty.
In its first week, the book topped The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list. After 24 weeks, it remained #10 on their best-selling hardcover non-fiction list. Scorsese and DiCaprio bought the screen rights in 2022 before the book was released, having adapted Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
The Wager: The Cast & Crew
So far, only Scorsese and DiCaprio are associated with the film. The Wager’s divided subject matter gives the legendary filmmaker plenty to work with. DiCaprio, who starred in The Revenant, will deliver another powerful performance. Scorsese loves human drama, gruesome visuals, and unforgiving motivation, which The Wager has.
The story’s international setting and huge implications are limited to this one time period, affair, and British Navy era. We can only assume Scorsese will capitalize on its larger themes and public appeal. He only needs DiCaprio to make it work.