DiCaprio and Ray Donovan writer to collaborate on Showtime mafia series

By Chris Leo Palermino Published September 21, 2015

Leonardo DiCaprio is set to executive produce a new untitled mafia drama set in 1980s Brooklyn for Showtime. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the series will delve into a relationship between a mafia captain and a rogue federal agent, each breaking the rules to carry out their strange partnership.

It’s a story that sounds eerily familiar to both the Scorsese mafia picture starring DiCaprio, The Departed, and the new Johnny Depp feature, Black Mass, which are based loosely, and directly on crime boss/informant Whitey Bulger’s life respectively.

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It’s unclear whether DiCaprio, who last appeared in a recurring role on the small screen 25 years ago as Luke Brower on Growing Pains, will also star in the series, but his turns on The Departed, and the more recent feature, The Wolf of Wall Street, will surely make him an asset to the production, on or off camera. The latter film may be doubly relevant, as THR claims the series will delve into the connection between the “Wall Street era” and the mafia at the height of ’80s commercialism.

The five-time Academy Award-nominated actor/producer will team up with writer Brett Johnson, best known for TV crime drama Ray Donovan and period drama Mad Men. Johnson will also executive produce alongside Jennifer Davisson Killoran, Bryan Zuriff (Ray Donovan), Charles Pacheco, Jennifer Erwin, and Dan Pearson.

In March, DiCaprio announced that his production company Appian Way will work with Netflix on a series of environmental and conservation-focused documentaries. That deal comes after the DiCaprio-Netflix doc Virunga was nominated for an Academy Award this year. Also upcoming for Appian Way is a TV adaptation of Simon Toyne’s supernatural thriller The Searcher.

DiCaprio will also co-star in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s gritty and dark survival thriller The Revenant with Tom Hardy, which debuts on Christmas, and a new Martin Scorsese film, The Devil in the White City.

Chris Leo Palermino

Chris Leo Palermino is a music, tech, business, and culture journalist based between New York and Boston. He also contributes…

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Each month, a plethora of TV shows and movies are added to and taken away from almost all streaming platforms. It can be hard to keep track of what's available and what's not. Time goes by quickly as the options continue to grow both on streaming services and in theaters, and that's never been more true than this June with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse dazzling audiences with its groundbreaking animation.

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Deli Boys | Official Trailer | Hulu
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