Apple Original Films is in advanced talks to finance and produce ‘What Happens at Night,’ a haunting new drama that will unite legendary director Martin Scorsese with stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence. The project is being developed with Studiocanal, which acquired the rights to Peter Cameron’s acclaimed novel in 2023.
Scorsese, who will also produce, is teaming with Oscar-nominated screenwriter Patrick Marber (Notes on a Scandal) to bring Cameron’s ghostly and enigmatic tale to the screen.
At the heart of the story is an American couple (DiCaprio and Lawrence) who travel to a remote, snowbound European city to adopt a baby. What begins as a hopeful journey turns increasingly unsettling after their arrival at the Borgarfjaroasysla Grand Imperial Hotel—a cavernous, eerily deserted lodge where the bar never closes and the lobby is filled with strange, spectral figures. Among them: an ancient, flamboyant chanteuse, a hard-drinking businessman, and a mysterious faith healer who seems to hold unsettling power.
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As the couple struggles to complete their adoption, the bizarre and dreamlike world around them begins to erode their sense of reality. The more they fight to hold onto their child and each other, the less they seem to understand about their marriage, themselves, and the very nature of life.
Cameron’s novel, first published in 2020, was widely praised for its eerie atmosphere and psychological depth. The adaptation marks Scorsese’s latest collaboration with DiCaprio, with whom he has made six films to date, including ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ and Killers of the Flower Moon.’ It also sets up a first-time pairing between the director and Jennifer Lawrence, who won an Academy Award for ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ and has become one of Hollywood’s most versatile leading actors.
If Apple closes the deal, ‘What Happens at Night’ will join the company’s growing roster of high-profile filmmaker-driven projects. With Scorsese at the helm, DiCaprio and Lawrence leading the cast, and Marber shaping the screenplay, the film promises to be a chilling, atmospheric exploration of love, loss, and the supernatural.
