Scorsese’s Hawaii Crime Film Pushed to 2027, Script 95% Done

Martin Scorsese’s long-gestating Hawaii crime film will not begin filming until 2027 or even the year after, with a 95%-done script and a roster of A-list stars. The project, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Blunt, and Dwayne Johnson, has yet to be greenlit, and Page Six reports the camera is unlikely to roll before 2027 “or even the year after that.”

Its screenwriter is now running 60 Minutes. Nick Bilton, a tech journalist and the film’s co-author, was named executive producer of the CBS newsmagazine last month by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. The job came in the middle of the most volatile stretch in 60 Minutes history, and the script is due this summer.

Scorsese’s Hawaii Film Won’t Shoot Until 2027

The Hawaii film was sold to Disney a year ago with Scorsese, DiCaprio, Blunt, and Johnson already attached. This week, Page Six reported the project will not start filming until 2027, or possibly 2028. The script, written by Bilton, is 95% done with revisions from Scorsese’s notes due this summer. The film has not yet been greenlit, according to the same sources.

Variety confirmed in March 2025 that 20th Century Studios had landed the package, with David Greenbaum and Steve Asbell overseeing for the studio, and the same studio is publishing a Bilton-Johnson book on the same true-crime story, due in the first quarter of 2027. The timing detail on the production start comes from Hollywood sources familiar with the project. Disney, CBS, and Bilton declined to comment.

How Nick Bilton Became 60 Minutes’ New Boss

Bilton’s screen credits include HBO’s The Idol and the Netflix series Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal. He has also written books on the early days of Twitter, the dark-web marketplace Silk Road, and the Hawaiian mob story that became the basis for the Scorsese project. He covered technology, politics, and culture for the New York Times and Vanity Fair, per a New York Magazine profile.

Bari Weiss, the CBS News editor-in-chief, named Bilton executive producer of 60 Minutes last month, and the move sent shock waves through the network. In the same week, CBS cut ties with executive producer Tanya Simon, executive editor Draggan Mihailovich, and correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi. Scott Pelley, a 37-year veteran of the program, was fired within days. He called the events the “Black Thursday massacre” in his first interview after the dismissal, speaking to The New York Times and published by The Hollywood Reporter. Pelley framed Bilton’s appointment in blunt terms: “I’m sure he must be a wonderful man, but no one had ever heard of him. He has zero experience in television news and no experience in management.”

1. CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss names Nick Bilton executive producer of 60 Minutes.
2. The same week, CBS cuts ties with executive producer Tanya Simon, executive editor Draggan Mihailovich, and correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi.
3. Scott Pelley, a 37-year veteran, confronts Bilton at a Monday staff meeting and accuses Weiss of “murdering” the show.
4. Pelley is summoned to a meeting with CBS News president Tom Cibrowski, who accuses him of physically abusing Bilton, then retracts the accusation.
5. Pelley is fired; the three remaining correspondents, Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim, weigh whether to return for Season 59.

Pelley’s denial of the physical abuse charge was emphatic: “I didn’t come within 10 feet of Nick Bilton. In my life, I have never put my hands on anyone in anger.” Bilton has, in turn, been “holding back-to-back meetings with the correspondents and producers, acknowledging the awful state of affairs at the show and committing to turning things around,” per CNN. The remaining correspondents are now weighing whether to return for Season 59.

Scorsese Gave the Script ‘Goodfellas’ Notes

Bilton sold the project to Disney a year ago and spent about eight months on the initial draft, per Page Six. The concept and film idea originated with Blunt and Johnson, who brought it to Scorsese and DiCaprio, according to Deadline’s original package announcement in February 2025. “Everyone was ecstatic,” an insider told Page Six, including “the Disney team, The Rock and Emily [Blunt].” Bilton then met Scorsese in New York about four months ago to get notes from the director.

The notes were specific. A Page Six source said Scorsese’s direction was to make the draft more voice-over-y, more ‘Goodfellas’, and Bilton spent the last four months implementing them, all while knowing the 60 Minutes job was about to start. He did so, the source added, while “knowing well in advance” about the new gig.

The current draft is 95% done. Insiders said Bilton timed the script revisions to land before the 60 Minutes work began. The writing is separate from the production calendar, which has yet to be locked. The film remains not yet greenlit, even with the script close to a final pass.

The Cast and the Hawaiian Syndicate

The film is set in 1960s and ’70s Hawaii, where a formidable and charismatic mob boss rises to build the islands’ most powerful criminal empire, waging a brutal war against mainland corporations and rival syndicates while fighting to preserve his ancestral land, per Variety. The source material is a forthcoming book by Bilton and Johnson, sold to Crown last year. It frames its central figure as Wilford “Nappy” Pulawa, “the first and only Hawaiian mob boss in history,” per Page Six. The book and the film follow the rise and fall of Hawaii’s most notorious crime syndicate, which goes by the Company.

The book is built on “millions of documents,” a publishing source told Page Six. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Blunt, and Dwayne Johnson. Blunt and Johnson previously worked together on Disney’s 2021 film Jungle Cruise and on A24’s upcoming The Smashing Machine, from writer-director Benny Safdie. Deadline reported that Blunt and Johnson brought the idea to Scorsese and DiCaprio and the group then enlisted Bilton to write. The producers include Scorsese for Sikelia Productions, Johnson for Seven Bucks Productions, DiCaprio for Appian Way Productions, Blunt for Ledbury Productions, and Bilton for True Story Productions.

Why CBS Wants Bilton All In

In a Thursday memo to staff, Bilton wrote: “The foundation of 60 Minutes is its journalistic independence. We will always pursue stories without fear or favor.” The memo also said: “We will always make the story the North Star, not relationships nor politics nor anything else.” A CBS News spokesperson added: “There is no political interference at CBS News, not from ownership, not from Bari Weiss.” Bilton also praised the three remaining correspondents by name, saying, “Lesley, Bill and Jon are core to this show’s success.”

Puck reported that Bilton got a “special carve out from CBS to continue working on the blockbuster Scorsese project,” a deal that buys him time to finish the Hawaii script this summer. Bilton has, in turn, been “holding back-to-back meetings with the correspondents and producers, acknowledging the awful state of affairs at the show and committing to turning things around,” per the CNN report on the staff memo and remaining correspondents’ status. The Season 59 premiere is set for September 13, a date a CBS source called “the real statement.” Bilton called the job the “honor of my career” in his staff memo, a phrase the New York Magazine profile of him highlighted.

The Film Scorsese Is Shooting First

The Hawaii film is not the next thing Scorsese shoots. He is preparing “What Happens at Night,” a ghost story adaptation of Peter Cameron’s 2020 novel, with DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and Mads Mikkelsen. Per The Playlist, the Hawaii-set film “is going to be next.”

“What Happens at Night” is an Apple Original Films production, with Mads Mikkelsen joining the cast last year in a supporting role. The site separately walked through Scorsese’s DiCaprio-Lawrence ghost film adaptation for Apple, built on the same Peter Cameron novel. DiCaprio and Lawrence previously shared the screen in the 2021 satire Don’t Look Up. Production on the ghost film is the immediate priority, with the Hawaii shoot now sitting in the queue behind it.

Scorsese also drew criticism this month for signing on as an adviser to Black Forest Labs, a Freiburg, Germany-based AI startup he had used on preproduction. Boots Riley, director of the heist comedy “I Love Boosters,” publicly criticized the partnership, writing that Scorsese “doesn’t give a f***” about working filmmakers. In his own statement, Scorsese said: “Cinema is a young medium, only around 125 years old, so we have to be open to how it can evolve.”

The Two Timelines Have to Hold

On one calendar, the 60 Minutes Season 59 premiere is set for September 13. On the other, the Bilton-Johnson book on the Hawaiian syndicate hits shelves in the first quarter of 2027, and the Hawaii film aims to begin shooting in 2027 or 2028. The film has not yet been greenlit, Page Six reported, and the book launch will arrive before cameras roll. Puck reported that Bilton got a “special carve out from CBS” specifically to keep working on the Scorsese project.

Bilton described 60 Minutes as the “honor of my career” in his staff memo, per New York Magazine. His defenders inside CBS call the show’s prospects “full speed ahead.” Pelley, asked about the state of the network, was blunt.

CBS News is on fire. We need adult supervision and at the moment we don’t have it.

That was Pelley, a 37-year veteran of CBS News, speaking to The New York Times last week.

Frequently Asked Questions

When will Martin Scorsese’s Hawaii crime film start shooting?

Page Six reports filming is set for 2027 or “even the year after that,” a window that puts the start in 2027 or 2028. The film has not yet been greenlit. The Bilton-Johnson book hits shelves in the first quarter of 2027, before cameras roll.

Who is writing the script for the Hawaii film?

Nick Bilton, a tech journalist and author who wrote HBO’s The Idol and the Netflix series Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal. Bilton is co-writing the book with Dwayne Johnson, and the group brought the idea to Scorsese and DiCaprio.

What is the Scorsese Hawaii film about?

The film is set in 1960s and ’70s Hawaii, following a mob boss who wages a brutal war against mainland corporations and rival syndicates while fighting to preserve his ancestral land, per Variety. The book frames its central figure as Wilford “Nappy” Pulawa, “the first and only Hawaiian mob boss in history,” and his syndicate, the Company.

Is the Hawaii film the next thing Scorsese is directing?

No. Scorsese is preparing What Happens at Night, a ghost story adaptation of Peter Cameron’s 2020 novel, with DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and Mads Mikkelsen. The Playlist reports the Hawaii film is “going to be next,” after the ghost story wraps.

When does Nick Bilton’s Hawaiian mob book come out?

The Bilton-Johnson book is scheduled for the first quarter of 2027, per Page Six. It is published by Crown and is built on “millions of documents” on the Hawaiian syndicate.