Martin Scorsese Adapts Supernatural Shocker What Happens At Night — Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence to Star
The countdown is on: cameras start rolling in January as the film heads into production.
Leo and Marty are getting the band back together, and this time they are veering into supernatural horror. Even better, Jennifer Lawrence is along for the ride. Yes, DiCaprio and Lawrence are reuniting, too. File this under: the kind of project you do not ignore.
The essentials
- Martin Scorsese is directing an adaptation of Peter Cameron's supernatural horror novel What Happens at Night.
- Leonardo DiCaprio will star, marking his seventh feature with Scorsese after their award-winning 2023 team-up on Killers of the Flower Moon.
- Jennifer Lawrence will co-lead, reuniting with DiCaprio after Netflix's record-breaking 2021 comedy Don't Look Up.
- Deadline says filming is set to start in January.
- Apple Original Films is in negotiations to finance and produce alongside Studiocanal, which picked up the book rights in 2023.
- Plot specifics for the adaptation and the rest of the cast are still under wraps.
So what is What Happens at Night?
At its core, the novel follows an unnamed American couple who trek to a remote, snow-buried European city to adopt a baby. The wife is battling cancer and becomes dangerously weak along the way, and the husband worries her condition could make the orphanage balk at handing over the child. They hole up at the spectacularly named Borgarfjaroasysla Grand Imperial Hotel, which is mostly empty, eternally boozy, and crawling with the kind of strange characters you clock from across the lobby: a very old, very theatrical chanteuse; a hard-living businessman; and a faith healer who may or may not be legit.
From there, reality gets slippery. The deeper the couple push toward their goal, the more the ground shifts under their feet — the baby, the marriage, even who they are to themselves gets fuzzier by the page. If Scorsese leans into the book's chilly, off-kilter vibe, expect something unnerving rather than jump-scare loud.
Why this pairing matters
DiCaprio and Scorsese doing a supernatural story is a curveball in the best way, and tossing Jennifer Lawrence into that mix is a smart, slightly chaotic cherry on top. Also, the producing side is a little inside baseball: Studiocanal secured the novel in 2023, and now Apple is circling to co-finance and co-produce. Translation: big backing, serious rollout.
Meanwhile, awards season is calling
While this new film gears up, both leads are already positioned to be front and center in this year's awards conversation. DiCaprio stars in One Battle After Another, which has reportedly become 2025's highest rated movie ahead of its theatrical release on September 26 — and it already landed a five-star review from GamesRadar+. Lawrence, meanwhile, is drawing early praise for her turn in Lynne Ramsay's upcoming drama Die, My Love, opening in US theaters on November 7.
Bottom line: cameras roll in January, more casting is TBA, and if the adaptation sticks close to the book's eerie, snowbound mood, this could be a very different kind of Scorsese epic.