Mike Fleming

Red Granite Pictures, which just formed an international sales division to be headed by ex-Nu Image execs Danny Dimbort and Christian Mercuri, has just bought into a big project. Red Granite chairman/CEO Riza Aziz and vice chairman Joey McFarland have acquired rights to Jordan Belfort’s memoir The Wolf of Wall Street and will produce with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Killoran’s Appian Way and Alexandra Milchan’s EMJAG Productions. DiCaprio has long wanted to play Belfort, with directors Martin Scorsese and Ridley Scott among those who’s sparked to directing the film. There were reports recently that Scorsese might resurface, but no director is set yet and there isn’t a start date. The project had been set at Warner Bros and nearly got made several years ago, but a tug of war between that studio and Paramount (where Scorsese has his overall deal) led them to instead collaborate on Shutter Island.

Script was written by Terence Winter, the exec producer of The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire. The drama chronicles Belfort’s rise and fall on Wall Street, a run marked by a hard-partying lifestyle, drug addiction, a 1998 indictment for securities fraud and money laundering. And a 22-month federal prison stretch. Belfort has been sober 14 years and is a motivational speaker.

Red Granite’s intention is to produce four to five films each year and make negative pickups. Along with Dimbort and Mercuri, the company brought Millennium Films production head Joe Gatta in as president, to oversee production operations. Red Granite most recently completed the Jennifer Westfelt-directed Friends with Kids, which stars Jon Hamm, Megan Fox, Westfeldt, Kristin Wiig and Adam Scott.

Dicaprio is repped by Rick Yorn.