Pitt and DiCaprio fight – DiCaprio wins “Wolf”

By M&C Movie News Mar 26, 2007, 10:13 GMT

Last Friday, March 23, the lights were burning bright late at night in Hollywood as Warner Bros. and Leonardo DiCaprio’s production shingle Appian Way on one side, and Paramount and Brad Pitt’s Plan B shingle on the other, aggressively bid literary agent Joel Gotler and producer Alexandra Milchan for production rights to “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

Book to be published by Bantam Books in September is an autobiography of Jordan Belfort, a Long Island penny stockbroker who served 20 months in prison for refusing to cooperate in a massive 1990s securities fraud case that involved widespread corruption on Wall Street and in the corporate banking world, including mob infiltration.

Bidding went DiCaprio’s way when Martin Scorsese was brought to the table as potential director.  This would be the fifth movie DiCaprio and Scorsese have done together (they are scheduled to work on ‘The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt’ later this year) – the first after their collaboration on ‘The Departed’ which won an Oscar for Scorsese.

No deals are in place yet for Scorsese or DiCaprio however “The Sopranos” writer Terence Winter has been brought on by WB to pen screenplay.

Paramount may still participate in the picture as they have a first look deal with Scorsese, which gives them option to co-finance half of any project that Scorsese directs or produces. However, a signed deal must be in place before their option kicks in.

Scorsese walks a fine line between the two-production powerhouses. He directed “Departed” for WB where then producer Brad Grey brought him into the pic.  Grey now tops Paramount.

Presently at Paramount, Scorsese has two pics in the works, ‘The Long Play’ and ‘Last Duel: A True Story of Crime.’