Leonardo DiCaprio to play infamous serial killer in sixth Martin Scorsese team-up

The Devil in the White City has been in development on and off since 2003

Leonardo DiCaprio is Martin Scorsese's favourite lead of late (Getty Images)

Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese are revving up their dream team bromance once again for a new movie about America's most notorious serial killer.

The Oscar-nominated actor has enlisted his favourite director (who else?) to help bring The Devil in the White City to cinemas after more than a decade of setbacks, industry insider The Hollywood Reporter can confirm.

Tom Cruise was originally on board to star in and produce a version of the horror story, with The Hurt Locker's Kathryn Bigelow later taking up the baton. Studio Paramount lost its rights in 2004 and again in 2007 after the film's period setting proved too expensive.

It was only when DiCaprio acquired the rights in 2010 that the project was revived and six years later it is back at Paramount.

Billy Ray (The Hunger Games, Captain Phillips) has been hired to adapt Erik Larson's bestselling 2003 book, about the real lives of architect Daniel H Burnham and murderer HH Holmes, for the screen.

Burnham was in charge of constructing the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, while Holmes disguised himself as a charismatic doctor, created the World's Fair Hotel and lured victims to their deaths in the gas and torture chambers, lime and acid pits and crematorium he had built there.

He admitted killing 27 women but is believed to have murdered closer to 200 and once said he was "born with the devil in me, with the evil standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since".

DiCaprio has shotgunned the role of Holmes, while the part of Burnham is yet to be cast. Scorsese is expected to start work on The Devil in the White City next, while DiCaprio is busy playing a vengeful fur trapper in The Revenant.

The duo last worked together on the critically-acclaimed The Wolf of Wall Street about fraudulent Wall Street stockbroker Jordan Belfort last year, and have previously worked on Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed and Shutter Island.