Martin Scorsese Taps Leonardo DiCaprio & Jennifer Lawrence for ‘What Happens at Night’

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Sep 20

Written By Jonathan P. Moustakas

L-R: Leonardo DiCaprio **Credit: Getty Images,** Martin Scorsese **Credit: Getty Images**, Jennifer Lawrence **Credit: FilmMagic**

Three Oscar winners. One surreal ghost story. Scorsese’s next chapter is already shaping up to be unforgettable.

Martin Scorsese has officially set his next feature, and it reunites him with two of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence are in talks to lead What Happens at Night, an adaptation of Peter Cameron’s haunting novel, with Apple Original Films and Studiocanal expected to co-finance and produce. The project is eyeing a January 2026 production start.

The script comes from Patrick Marber (Notes on a Scandal, Closer), with Scorsese originally attached as a producer before officially boarding as director. Studiocanal acquired the rights in early 2023, but with DiCaprio’s schedule recently cleared and Jennifer Lawrence fresh off her Cannes debut in Die, My Love, the stars have aligned—literally.

What Happens at Night follows a married American couple who travel to a remote, snow-covered European town to adopt a child. Once there, they check into a cavernous and mostly deserted hotel, where they encounter a surreal parade of strangers: a mysterious singer, a charismatic healer, and a shadowy businessman. As the couple’s mission spirals into confusion, the hotel’s reality starts to unravel. The result promises a dreamlike mystery steeped in themes of memory, identity, and existential longing.

It’s not the first time Scorsese and DiCaprio have plunged into psychological horror. The premise draws early comparisons to 2010’s Shutter Island, another eerie, mind-bending thriller that blended noir aesthetics with metaphysical twists. But this new project might lean even more abstract, with its literary source material unfolding like a fever dream.

For Apple, the project strengthens an already potent relationship with both Scorsese and DiCaprio. The studio distributed last year’s Killers of the Flower Moon, and maintains first-look deals with both Scorsese’s Sikelia Productions and DiCaprio’s Appian Way. With One Battle After Another—DiCaprio’s upcoming collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson—generating early awards buzz, What Happens at Night could continue the streak into 2026 and beyond.

Lawrence, meanwhile, is carving out a bold new chapter in her career. After standout turns in Causeway and the Cannes-premiering Die, My Love, her pairing with Scorsese marks a long-awaited creative partnership. It’s a high-wattage trifecta of talent that brings prestige, power, and intrigue to the table.

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No official release window has been set, and casting is still underway for the ensemble of supporting roles—each likely to add new layers of eccentricity and surrealism to the narrative landscape.

As Scorsese closes in on his ninth collaboration with DiCaprio and ushers Lawrence into his world of cinematic fever dreams, What Happens at Night might just become the director’s most enigmatic—and emotionally surreal—film yet.

Stay tuned for updates as the film enters pre-production and the distribution deal is finalized.