Surf’s up for 20th Century Studios.
The Disney division has picked up the Hawaii-set crime thriller package that has Leonard DiCaprio, Dwayne Johnson, and Emily Blunt attached to star, and Martin Scorsese attached to direct.
Lei-ed with a script by journalist and author Nick Bilton, the fact-based untitled movie is said to be in the mold of Scorsese’s Goodfellas and The Departed and center on a mob boss vying for control of the Hawaiian islands in the 1960s and 1970s.
All the players will also be producers on the project: Scorsese is producing via his Sikelia Productions banner, Johnson via Seven Bucks Productions, DiCaprio via his Appian Way Productions, and Blunt through her Ledbury Productions company. Bilton is producing as well.
The project’s origins come from the ‘ohana-like bond between Blunt and Johnson. The concept and film idea originated from Blunt. And now Johnson is co-authoring a book with Bilton on the subject.
The untitled story is set in 1960s and ’70s Hawaii and tells of a formidable and charismatic mob boss who rises to build the islands’ most powerful criminal empire, waging a brutal war against mainland corporations and rival syndicates while fighting to preserve his ancestral land.
The project is based on the untold true story of a man who, according to the producers, fought to preserve his homeland through a ruthless quest for absolute power, igniting the last great American mob saga, where the war for cultural survival takes place in the unlikeliest of places: paradise.
Dany Garcia, co-founder of Seven Bucks Productions, Lisa Frechette from Sikelia Productions, Rick Yorn and Chris Donnelly from LBI Entertainment will act as executive producers.
Seven Bucks, co-founded by Johnson and Garcia, signed a first look deal with Disney earlier this year to develop films for theatrical and streaming. This is one of the first projects to come out from that partnership.
The Hawaii package hit the town a month ago and is one of the year’s more star-studded auction offerings. That 20th Century is the one in the midst of picking it up and not a studio such as Warner Bros. or one of the streaming platforms is a testament to the revamp the Disney division is undergoing via Disney live action and 20th Century Studios president David Greenbaum.
Greenbaum took over the divisions a year ago, and one of his intentions was to make 20th Century a destination for prestige fare while also forging ties with name filmmakers. In the last year, the division, which has Steve Asbell as president, has greenlit the new Ridley Scott feature Dog Star and time travel project The Barrier, from Edward Berger and Austin Butler. It also wrapped production on Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere starring Jeremy Allen White.
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