“Goodfellas” in Hawaii? That’s the new package gaining steam in Hollywood, which sees Martin Scorsese direct Dwayne Johnson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Emily Plot in a period crime thriller set in the Aloha State.
Deadline reports that, yes, despite how ridiculous this idea sounds, the pitch is real, and it has Tinsel Town in an uproar. British-American journalist Nick Bilton will pen the script, about a real-life Hawaiian crime boss who held saw over the islands’ most powerful crime empire in the 1960s and 70s. Think “Goodfellas” meets “The Departed” set in a tropical island paradise, and that’s the gist.
Read on for Deadline’s entire take on the project’s synopsis:
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.
Producers in the project include Scorsese, Johnson, Blunt, DiCaprio, Bilton, Dany Garcia, Lisa Frechette, and Rick Yorn.
If this crime pic gets made, it’ll be yet another collaboration between DiCpario and Scorsese; the actor-director pair have worked on six films together, including the most recent “Killers Of The Flower Moon.” But it’s also a reunion for Johnson and Blunt, who have worked together on Disney‘s “Jungle Cruise” and star in Benny Safdie‘s upcoming “Smashing Machine.” Deadline confirms that it’s Blunt and Johnson who first cooked up the idea for the project and brought it to DiCpario and Scorsese. After they assented, the foursome went to Bilton, who will pen the script once the pic finds a studio backer.
Scrosese working with Dawyne Johnson? Strangers things have happened in Hollywood history, but this project truly strains creduility. Still, if it’s for real, don’t be surprised if it gets moving fast. Neither Scorsese nor DiCaprio are attached to anything right now (that is, if 20th Century Studios doesn’t resurrect “The Devil In The White City“), and this could become their next project if someone lines up to give it a budget.
