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Leonardo DiCaprio has just crossed over into…the Twilight Zone — and the life of its creator, Rod Serling.
IndieWire can reveal exclusively that DiCaprio’s Appian Way is set to produce an authorized biographical documentary on the life of Serling, the host, creator, narrator, writer, and political activist best known for his series “The Twilight Zone.”
The untitled film will be directed by Jonah Tulis, who previously directed “GameStop: Rise of the Players” for Neon and “Console Wars” for Legendary Pictures and Paramount+. He and the producers have received the full blessing of Serling’s daughters Jodi Serling and Anne Serling, who are executive producing the project.
The Serling documentary will explore how Serling’s writing helped change television forever. The film will look at Serling’s humble beginnings in television and how he later used his platform to affect change both on and off the screen, including his battles with censors and how he grappled with thought provoking issues of racism, war, the dangers of technology, and morality via the genre-bending, sci-fi parables.
But the Serling film will also be told in “his own words,” leaning on archival footage — provided by his estate — to have his own voice helping to guide the story. You can’t have a Serling documentary that the late writer doesn’t in some way narrate himself. What’s more, the film will also have re-enactments of moments of his life shot in black and white in the style of “The Twilight Zone.”
The film will be a project of Appian Way, Goodlight, Grub Street Films, 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 take place in Rhode Island.
“We are excited to dive into the life of such a visionary who understood the role storytelling plays in pushing and challenging societal norms,” Appian Way’s Jennifer Davisson said in a statement. “Equipped with a vast and extensive collection of archival footage, we hope to capture the essence of a man who used ‘The Twilight Zone’ so poignantly to drive social and political change.”
“We are very excited to collaborate with Appian Way and provide an inside look on Rod Serling’s story with a personal narrative and footage that audiences have never seen before,” Verdi said. “This documentary will be the first of several projects that we plan on producing with this team.”
The first season of “The Twilight Zone” aired in 1959 on CBS and ran for five seasons, sparking controversy, spawning later remakes, and leaving an indelible imprint on popular culture. Serling was also known for his teleplays such as “Patterns” and “Requiem for a Heavyweight” that were each later turned into films and netted him six Primetime Emmy Awards throughout his career. He also is the co-writer on the original “The Planet of the Apes” alongside Michael Wilson.
Serling died at the age of 50 in 1975.
Appian Way has produced documentaries such as the Oscar-nominated “Virunga,” “Cowspiracy,” “Sea of Shadows,” “Ice on Fire,” and “And We Go Green.”
Verdi Productions is behind a documentary announced in June to be directed by Martin Scorsese called “Shipwrecks of Sicily” that will see him filming ancient shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea not far from where his paternal grandparents were born. Verdi Productions also recently shot “The Roaring Game,” a drama starring Mickey Rourke. Some of its other releases include “Chosen Family,” “Junction,” and the documentary “Knockout Blonde.”
Up next for Tulis and Harris is an untitled true-crime thriller slated for release in 2025 in which the filmmakers got exclusive access to one of the world’s most notorious criminals. Harris, who wrote the book “Console Wars” on which the documentary is based, is currently writing a book about Larry David for HarperCollins. Tulis and Harris are represented by CAA.
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