Leonardo DiCaprio To Play Serial Kill H.H. Holmes in “The Devil In The White City”

Leonardo DiCaprio will play a serial killer in the bloodthirsty biopic The Devil in the White City, Variety said Tuesday.

The movie is based on author Erik Larson’s non-fiction book which has sold 2.3 million copies and has been translated into 17 languages. The story tells the tale of two men, Daniel H. Burnham and Dr H.H. Holmes. Burnham was the architect behind the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Meanwhile, Holmes was a serial killer pretending to be a doctor. Holmes used the fair to slaughter his victims in his “Murder Castle,” a structure containing a gas chamber, dissection table, and a crematorium. DiCaprio will play the homicidal Holmes, who murdered around 200 people, mostly single young women.

The Oscar nominee will also produce the project with his partner Jennifer Killoran through his production company Appian Way.

“I think that a guy who is that intelligent and that charismatic is nothing less than complex, and it’s that complexity that [DiCaprio] is drawn to,” says Killoran. “And because people don’t know much about [Holmes], it makes it even more interesting.”

The Devil in the White City is expected to premiere in 2011.