Leonardo DiCaprio has simply crossed over into…the Twilight Zone — and the lifetime of its creator, Rod Serling.
IndieWire can reveal completely that DiCaprio’s Appian Method is about to supply a certified biographical documentary on the lifetime of Serling, the host, creator, narrator, author, and political activist greatest identified for his collection “The Twilight Zone.”
The untitled movie will likely be directed by Jonah Tulis, who beforehand directed “GameStop: Rise of the Gamers” for Neon and “Console Wars” for Legendary Photos and Paramount+. He and the producers have obtained the total blessing of Serling’s daughters Jodi Serling and Anne Serling, who’re govt producing the venture.
The Serling documentary will discover how Serling’s writing helped change tv eternally. The movie will have a look at Serling’s humble beginnings in tv and the way he later used his platform to have an effect on change each on and off the display, together with his battles with censors and the way he grappled with thought upsetting problems with racism, battle, the risks of expertise, and morality through the genre-bending, sci-fi parables.
However the Serling movie may also be advised in “his personal phrases,” leaning on archival footage — supplied by his property — to have his personal voice serving to to information the story. You possibly can’t have a Serling documentary that the late author doesn’t ultimately narrate himself. What’s extra, the movie may also have re-enactments of moments of his life shot in black and white within the type of “The Twilight Zone.”
The movie will likely be a venture of Appian Method, Goodlight, Grub Road Movies, and Verdi Productions, with DiCaprio producing alongside Chad Verdi, Jennifer Davisson, Phillip Watson, Taylor DiGilio, Blake J. Harris, Michelle Verdi, Chad Verdi Jr., Paul Luba, and Tulis.
Filming on the documentary will happen in Rhode Island.
“We’re excited to dive into the lifetime of such a visionary who understood the function storytelling performs in pushing and difficult societal norms,” Appian Method’s Jennifer Davisson mentioned in an announcement. “Outfitted with an enormous and intensive assortment of archival footage, we hope to seize the essence of a person who used ‘The Twilight Zone’ so poignantly to drive social and political change.”
“We’re very excited to collaborate with Appian Method and supply an inside look on Rod Serling’s story with a private narrative and pictures that audiences have by no means seen earlier than,” Verdi mentioned. “This documentary would be the first of a number of tasks that we plan on producing with this workforce.”
The primary season of “The Twilight Zone” aired in 1959 on CBS and ran for 5 seasons, sparking controversy, spawning later remakes, and leaving an indelible imprint on standard tradition. Serling was additionally identified for his teleplays similar to “Patterns” and “Requiem for a Heavyweight” that have been every later changed into movies and netted him six Primetime Emmy Awards all through his profession. He is also the co-writer on the unique “The Planet of the Apes” alongside Michael Wilson.
Serling died on the age of fifty in 1975.
Appian Method has produced documentaries such because the Oscar-nominated “Virunga,” “Cowspiracy,” “Sea of Shadows,” “Ice on Hearth,” and “And We Go Inexperienced.”
Verdi Productions is behind a documentary introduced in June to be directed by Martin Scorsese referred to as “Shipwrecks of Sicily” that may see him filming historical shipwrecks within the Mediterranean Sea not removed from the place his paternal grandparents have been born. Verdi Productions additionally lately shot “The Roaring Recreation,” a drama starring Mickey Rourke. A few of its different releases embrace “Chosen Household,” “Junction,” and the documentary “Knockout Blonde.”
Up subsequent for Tulis and Harris is an untitled true-crime thriller slated for launch in 2025 during which the filmmakers acquired unique entry to one of many world’s most infamous criminals. Harris, who wrote the guide “Console Wars” on which the documentary relies, is at the moment writing a guide about Larry David for HarperCollins. Tulis and Harris are represented by CAA.