Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio will team up for a big screen adaptation of Erik Larson’s 2003 book The Devil in the White City.

Leonardo DiCaprio is expected to play serial killer Dr. H.H. Holmes, who used the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago to lure his victims to their deaths.

H.H. Holmes claimed to have killed 27 people – although some later estimates put his death toll at nearer 200.

It will be the sixth time Leonardo DiCaprio has worked with director Martin Scorsese.

Their previous films include The Wolf of Wall Street, The Departed and Gangs of New York.

Leonardo DiCaprio reportedly bought the film rights to The Devil in the White City in 2010.

It tells the story of Dr. H.H. Holmes, who converted a large building in Chicago and turned it into what became known as a “murder castle”.

The castle had a padded room with a gas pipe to asphyxiate victims, a chute for dispatching bodies to the cellar and, in the cellar, a hidden butcher’s table and oven that had the remains of women’s clothing.

The screenplay will be written by Billy Ray, who scripted Captain Phillips and The Hunger Games.