Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio's Martin Scorsese Movie Just Got a Major Update

Martin Scorsese has his next one lined up, and it is a chilly, eerie thing called 'What Happens at Night' with Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio front and center. We just got a timing tease on when cameras might finally roll.

So when does this actually start?

Lawrence told IndieWire they are aiming to get going in January or February. She also made it clear she is not counting anything until she is physically on set, and said they are ready to dig in once it happens. In other words: pencil, not pen.

What the movie is

It is adapted from Peter Cameron's novel of the same name, a dreamlike, wintry ghost story. Scorsese is directing from a script by Patrick Marber. On the business side, Apple Original Films has been in talks to finance and produce, with Studiocanal in the mix as well. The money and partners are being sorted as the start date firms up.

The setup (and why it sounds weird in a good way)

An American couple heads to a small, snow-buried European town to adopt a baby. They check into a cavernous, mostly empty hotel and run into a set of offbeat locals: a flamboyant singer, a grossly corrupt businessman, and a magnetic faith healer. Nothing in this frozen little world behaves the way you expect, and the more the couple fights to bring the baby home, the less sure they are about who they are and what their marriage actually is. If you like elegant dread and people unraveling in beautiful places, this is squarely in that lane.

Reunions all around

This puts Lawrence and DiCaprio back together for the first time since 2021's 'Don't Look Up.' For DiCaprio and Scorsese, it is collaboration number seven and their first since 2023's 'Killers of the Flower Moon.'

Leo is watching 'Vertigo' for homework

DiCaprio said he rewatched Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' to get in the zone for this. While doing press for something titled 'One Battle After Another,' he told The Big Picture podcast that movie talk with Scorsese is basically church, and hinted that 'Vertigo' is a reference point here.

'Any time you get to see and talk movies with him, it is a religious experience. But when he talks about a movie that he is still trying to figure out, he is like, you know, 'Each decade that movie means something different to me. Is she a ghost, or is she not a ghost? Is she there? Is he a ghost?' So yeah, there is something we are working on that is a reference to that.'

• Title: 'What Happens at Night' (based on Peter Cameron's novel)
• Director: Martin Scorsese
• Screenplay: Patrick Marber
• Leads: Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio
• Status: Aiming to start in Jan/Feb; financing/production talks involve Apple Original Films and Studiocanal
• Tone/plot: Dreamlike, wintry adoption trip gone surreal; hotel oddballs; identity and marriage unspooling
• Connections: Lawrence/DiCaprio reunion after 'Don't Look Up'; 7th Scorsese/DiCaprio team-up post-'Killers of the Flower Moon'
• Influence watch: DiCaprio name-checks 'Vertigo' as a touchstone

Short version: the pieces are moving, the mood sounds deliciously unnerving, and if that 'Vertigo' compass holds, expect a slick, haunted head trip rather than a jump-scare parade. Now, let the snow fall and the hotel hallways get weird.