Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Kyle Chandler is joining Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill in The Wolf Of Wall Street, the Martin Scorsese-directed adaptation of the Jordan Belfort memoir that was adapted by Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter. The film’s being financed by Red Granite.

DiCaprio plays Belfort, who experiences a dramatic rise on Wall Street, and gets lost in the drugs and other excess of a hard partying lifestyle that comes hand in hand with all that money. His downfall is precipitous, and he spent 22 months in jail before straightening out his life. Chandler will play FBI agent Coleman, who built the case against Belfort and took him down. Hill plays Belfort’s close friend and business partner who’s persuaded by Belfort to quit his job in the furniture business to jump into volatile world of stocks.

Red Granite Pictures principals Riza Aziz and Joey McFarland are producing with Appian Way’s DiCaprio, Sikelia Production’ Scorsese and Emma Koskoff, and EMJAG Productions’ Alexandra Milchan.

Since Chandler won an Emmy to wrap up his run as high school football coach Eric Taylor on Friday Night Lights, he has so far resisted offers to return for another series during this pilot season. Instead, he has been working steadily in features. That includes the Ben Affleck-directed Argo, Broken City with Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe, and Zero Dark Thirty, the Kathryn Bigelow-directed drama about the successful hunt by Navy SEAL Team 6 for 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden. There is also the prospect of a Friday Night Lights feature at Imagine Entertainment and Universal, with Peter Berg at the center. Chandler is repped by Gersh and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.