What’s the most ridiculous idea you can think of for a Martin Scorsese movie? How about a Scorsese mob film…in Hawaii? That is actually about to happen, because a hot package going around Hollywood now is a Hawaii-set mob film that will be dircted by Scorsese, and star his pal Leonardo DiCaprio, plus Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. What the Hell is this??
The script will come from journalist Nick Bilton and center on a real-life Hawaiian crime boss who ruled the island underworld in the 1960s and ’70s.
Makes me wonder if the story revolves around The Company, a Hawaiian crime syndicate led until 1973 by Wilford “Nappy” Pulawa.
Here’s Deadline‘s description of the film: To be written by Nick Bilton, the film focuses on a turbulent time on the island paradise when an aspiring mob boss battled rival crime factions to wrest control of the underworld of the Hawaiian islands. It was a bloody battle, the kind of terrain Scorsese covered in both “Goodfellas” and “The Departed.” In 1960s and 70s Hawaii, this formidable and charismatic mob boss 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. It’s based on the untold true story of a man who 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.
Assuming everything goes forward, this will be Scorsese and DiCaprio’s sixth movie together. The last one was Killers of the Flower Moon which earned ten Academy Award nominations. They have an adaptation of The Devil in the White City in the works, as well.
It will also be a reunion for Johnson and Blunt who worked together on Jungle Cruise and The Smashing Machine. Neither has worked with Scorsese yet, and honestly, I don’t think anyone had Johnson ever starring in one of his movies. We live in strange times, folks.
