The film community has a new headline: Martin Scorsese is in production on his next feature, an adaptation of Peter Cameron’s novel What Happens at Night. Filming reportedly began last month in the Czech Republic, and the first promotional still has already been released, showing Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence walking together through a wintry landscape. Backing comes from Apple Original Films in partnership with Studiocanal, marking another high-profile collaboration for Scorsese and the tech-backed studio.
This project reunites several longtime collaborators while introducing new creative relationships. Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto and editor Thelma Schoonmaker are returning to work with Scorsese, and the screenplay is by Patrick Marber, adapted from Peter Cameron‘s novel. The picture is described as a Gothic psychological horror — a tone that aligns with Scorsese’s occasional ventures into darker, unnerving territory. The production also lists producers and company ties to Sikelia Productions and lists Excellent Cadaver as the executive production vehicle for Lawrence.
Cast and key creatives
The cast combines longtime Scorsese collaborators with fresh faces under his direction. At the center are Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, joined by Mads Mikkelsen, Patricia Clarkson, and Jared Harris. This will be a notable reunion for DiCaprio with Scorsese — their partnership spans multiple films — while it represents a first-time director-actor pairing between Scorsese and Lawrence. Beyond the performers, the involvement of Rodrigo Prieto and Thelma Schoonmaker signals a visual and editorial team attuned to Scorsese’s established rhythms and tastes.
Production partners and roles
Apple Original Films is financing and producing the project alongside Studiocanal, and Scorsese is producing through his company. Executive production credits include Lawrence’s banner, reflecting her creative involvement beyond acting. The screenplay adaptation is credited to Patrick Marber, who brings his own sensibility to Cameron’s source material, while the film’s technical leadership points to a deliberate aesthetic direction intended to support the story’s unsettling atmosphere.
Source material and story outline
The film adapts Peter Cameron’s novel What Happens at Night, a tale built around a couple’s disorienting journey to a remote, snowbound European city to adopt a child. The book frames the narrative as an increasingly strange odyssey: the wife is weak from illness, the couple checks into the cavernous Borgarfjaroasysla Grand Imperial Hotel, and the hotel population includes eccentric figures ranging from a faded chanteuse to a dubious faith healer. As the pair fights to secure the adoption, reality thins and questions about their marriage and identity come to the fore. The adaptation is being presented as an exploration of doubt, memory, and perception within a frozen, claustrophobic setting.
Tone and expected approach
Early descriptions label the project a haunted marriage drama with Gothic overtones, indicating that Scorsese will lean into psychological unease rather than straight genre horror. The choice of Prieto and Schoonmaker suggests a commitment to a carefully composed visual language and a pacing that privileges mounting dread. The first released image, showing the leads clasping hands in a bleak, snowy frame, already establishes an aesthetic of isolation and mystery that the production seems intent on sustaining.
Production timeline and what to watch for
With cameras rolling in the Czech Republic and initial images public, the film has entered a busy phase that will include principal photography, followed by a lengthy post-production period typical of Scorsese’s films. Observers have suggested that post-production could extend well beyond principal photography, potentially pushing final delivery into the following year. While no release date has been announced, the combination of an auteur director, major studio backing, and a high-profile cast will keep this project under close industry watch as it progresses.
For now, audiences can look for further glimpses from set, casting confirmations, and official production updates from the studios involved. The collaboration brings together established Scorsese collaborators and new creative energies, and the adaptation of Cameron’s unsettling novel promises a film that aims to be both literarily faithful and cinematically distinct.