Appian Way Productions

History

2001–2010

Appian Way Productions was founded by Leonardo DiCaprio in 2001. It takes its name from the Roman road of the same name. Its first film was The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004), starring Sean Penn as Samuel Byck, who attempted to assassinate US president Richard Nixon in 1974. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. The company's next film was the 2004 biopic The Aviator, produced in association with Forward Pass, IMF, and Initial Entertainment Group. Based on the 1993 non-fiction book Howard Hughes: The Secret Life by Charles Higham, the film depicted the life of Howard Hughes (DiCaprio), an aviation pioneer who became a successful film producer between the late 1920s and late 1940s while simultaneously growing more unstable due to severe obsessive–compulsive disorder. Writing for The Daily Telegraph, Sukhdev Sandhu described the film as "a gorgeous tribute to the Golden Age of Hollywood" even though it "tips the balance of spectacle versus substance in favour of the former". He praised Martin Scorsese's direction, DiCaprio and the supporting cast. The film proved to be a commercial success, with a worldwide gross of $213.7 million against a budget of $110 million. It earned a total of eleven nominations at the 77th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Scorsese) and Best Actor (DiCaprio), and won five of them, including a Best Supporting Actress award for Cate Blanchett.

Kevin Connolly, a close friend of DiCaprio, directed Appian Way's next film—the comedy drama Gardener of Eden (2007), which, according to *The Hollywood Reporter'''s Frank Scheck, "lack[ed] the necessary dramatic urgency or black humor to connect with audiences". A few months later, Appian Way released The 11th Hour, a documentary about global warming. The film, featuring 50 experts who suggested solutions to various environmental problems, won the Earthwatch Environmental Film Award through the National Geographic Channel in March 2008. DiCaprio wrote a three-season television series *Greensburg'' (2008–10) which was produced by the company.

Appian Way later produced another biopic, Public Enemies (2009), a Michael Mann-directed mob drama starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. Following the final years of the notorious bank robber John Dillinger (Depp) as he is pursued by FBI agent Melvin Purvis during Great Depression, the film was an adaptation of Bryan Burrough's non-fiction book Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933–34. A commercial success, it also received generally positive reviews, though critics found historical inaccuracies in the film. The company, along with Dark Castle Entertainment, released the 2009 psychological horror film Orphan, which told the story of a couple who, after the death of their unborn child, adopt a mysterious nine-year-old girl. The film was considered by the adoption community to promote negative stereotypes about orphans. Although the film received mixed reviews, it was a commercial success.

Scorsese reunited with the company to make the film Shutter Island (2010), a psychological thriller based on the 2003 novel of same name by Dennis Lehane. DiCaprio played U.S. Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels, who investigates a psychiatric facility located on an island but eventually comes to question his own sanity. A commercial success, the film received generally positive reviews; Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian praised the film's direction and performances but criticized its "silly twist ending", calling it "supremely exasperating".

2011 onward

Red Riding Hood, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, was Appian Way's first release in 2011. The film, set in a village haunted by werewolves, follows a young girl who falls in love with an orphan woodcutter, much to her family's displeasure. Earlier in production, the film was titled The Girl with the Red Riding Hood. Although it was poorly received by critics—Mary Pols of Time named it one of the Top 10 Worst Movies of 2011—it had moderate box-office returns. The company's second release in 2011 was Detachment, a Tony Kaye-directed drama about the high school education system. George Clooney directed and co-produced the company's final film of the year The Ides of March, which is based on Beau Willimon's play Farragut North. Starring Ryan Gosling, Clooney and Philip Seymour Hoffman, this political drama takes place during a presidential primary, when an ambitious press secretary (Gosling) becomes embroiled in a political scandal. The film received positive reviews; one from The Guardian praised the direction and the performances of the cast.

Three films were produced by Appian Way in 2013; the first was Runner Runner, an ensemble crime thriller, which The Guardian Xan Brooks described as "a lazy, trashy film that barely goes through the motions". The thriller Out of the Furnace, the company's second release, was also negatively received by critics and was a box office bomb. Scorsese directed the company's final film in 2013—The Wolf of Wall Street, a biopic on the life of Jordan Belfort (DiCaprio), a New York stockbroker who runs a firm that engages in securities fraud and money laundering on Wall Street in the 1990s. The screenplay was adapted by Terence Winter from Belfort's memoir of the same name. The film was banned in Kenya, Malaysia and Nepal for its controversial depiction of events, explicit sexual content, profanity, and hard drug use. Nonetheless, it was a commercial success, becoming the 17th-highest-grossing film of 2013. The film was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, although it failed to win in any category.

In 2015, DiCaprio produced and co-starred with Tom Hardy and Domhnall Gleeson in The Revenant, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. This biographical western thriller is based on in part on Michael Punke's 2002 novel of the same name, which itself was inspired by the frontiersman Hugh Glass's survival after being mauled by a grizzly bear in 1823. Co-produced with Regency Enterprises, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, Anonymous Content and M Productions, the film was well received with particular praise for the performances, direction and cinematography. "Bleak as hell but considerably more beautiful, this nightmarish plunge into a frigid, forbidding American outback is a movie of pitiless violence, grueling intensity and continually breathtaking imagery", according to Justin Change of Variety. Built on a budget of $135 million, the film earned $533 million worldwide. The Revenant received 12 nominations at the 88th Academy Awards, and won three, including Best Director and Best Actor.

In May 2016, Appian Way Productions signed a three-year, first-look production deal with Paramount Pictures. In December 2016, the company released Live by Night, based on the 2012 novel of same name by Dennis Lehane. Directed by, written by and starring Ben Affleck, this Prohibition-era gangster drama received largely unenthusiastic reviews and failed to recoup its $65 million production budget. Also that year, the company produced four documentaries, Davi's Way, The Last Shaman, The Ivory Game and Before the Flood, the last of which won the Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Documentary.

In 2017, Appian Way produced Under the Bed, a television film thriller about a young woman trying to get over a breakup, while befriending a stalker on social media. In association with Blumhouse Productions and GK Films, the company later produced Delirium, a supernatural horror film which was released later that year.

In 2023, Appian Way produced The Featherweight, the debut film of Robert Kolodny, which had its world premiere in competition at the 80th Venice International Film Festival and Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, which was distributed by Apple TV+ and Paramount Pictures.

In 2020, the studio signed first-look deals with Apple for documentaries and television and with Sony Pictures Entertainment for feature films.

James Rollins's Sigma Force techno-thriller novels are getting the small screen treatment. A television adaptation of the book series is in development from Absentia creator Matt Cirulnick, Amazon MGM Studios, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions, Oakhurst Entertainment and Talaria Media.

Films

Television

• Greensburg (2008–10)
• Under the Bed (2017)
• Pete the Cat (2017–2022)
• Grant (2020)
• The Right Stuff (2020)
• Shining Girls (2022)

Documentaries

• The 11th Hour (2007)
• Virunga (2014, Netflix release)
• Cowspiracy (2015, Netflix release)
• Davi's Way (2016)
• The Last Shaman (2016)
• The Ivory Game (2016)
• Before the Flood (2016)
• Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle (2018)
• Ice on Fire (2019)
• Sea of Shadows (2019, National Geographic Channel release)
• And We Go Green (2019)
• Whose Vote Counts, Explained (2020, Netflix release)
• Kid 90 (2021)
• Fin (2021)
• The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52 (2021)
• The Lake (2026)

Notes

Footnotes

References

References

1. (November 14, 2016). "History Greenlights "frontiersmen" From Executive Producer Leonardo Dicaprio Of Appian Way Productions And Stephen David Entertainment". [[A&E Networks]].
2. Lyons, Josh. (20 June 2016). "Leonardo DiCaprio And Appian Way Team With Misher Films For 'The Outlaw Ocean' At Netflix (EXCLUSIVE)". The Tracking Board.
3. (August 11, 2011). "The Good, the Bad, Not the Ugly". [[The New York Times]].
4. (August 5, 2001). "IEG, DiCaprio gang up". [[Variety (magazine).
5. (May 17, 2004). "Review: 'The Assassination of Richard Nixon'". [[Variety (magazine).
6. "The Assassination of Richard Nixon". [[Cannes Film Festival]].
7. (2014). "The Encyclopedia of Epic Films". Scarecrow Press.
8. (June 10, 2005). "The Aviator". [[The Guardian]].
9. (December 24, 2004). "Thrillingly bumpy ride towards madness". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
10. "The Aviator (2004)". [[Box Office Mojo]].
11. "The 77th Academy Awards (2005) Nominees and Winners". [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]].
12. (April 26, 2007). "The Gardener of Eden". [[The Hollywood Reporter]].
13. (December 21, 2014). "Why You Should Watch 'The 11th Hour' With Leonardo DiCaprio". abcofsolar.com.
14. "Greensburg Season 3 to Air on Planet Green". Greensburgks.org.
15. Slavicek, Louise Chipley. (2012). "Leonardo DiCaprio". Infobase Learning.
16. "Public Enemies". [[Metacritic]].
17. "Public Enemies (2009)". Box Office Mojo.
18. (July 19, 2009). "Advocates of adoption upset by 'Orphan' film". [[Los Angeles Times]].
19. Ochoa, George. (2011). "Deformed and Destructive Beings: The Purpose of Horror Films". McFarland.
20. "Shutter Island (2010)". Box Office Mojo.
21. (March 11, 2010). "Shutter Island". [[The Guardian]].
22. (April 23, 2010). "'Twilight' director Catherine Hardwicke talks new project: 'Red Riding Hood'".
23. Pols, Mary. (December 7, 2011). "The Top 10 Everything of 2011 – Red Riding Hood".
24. "Red Riding Hood". Box Office Mojo.
25. (March 15, 2012). "Detachment Review".
26. "The Ides of March". Rotten Tomatoes.
27. (October 29, 2011). "The Ides of March – review". The Guardian.
28. (September 26, 2013). "Runner Runner – review". The Guardian.
29. Kaufman, Amy. (December 8, 2013). "'Frozen' tops 'Catching Fire,' but 'Furnace' generates no heat". [[Los Angeles Times]].
30. Harding, Nick. (January 12, 2014). "Jordan Belfort: The real Wolf of Wall Street and the men who brought him down". [[The Independent]].
31. (13 February 2014). "Kenya arrests over banned Wolf of Wall Street film". BBC News.
32. "'The Wolf Of Wall Street' banned in Malaysia and Nepal". [[NME]].
33. "2013 Worldwide Grosses". Box Office Mojo.
34. (March 2, 2014). "Oscar nominations 2014: full list of nominees". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
35. (December 4, 2015). "Film Review: 'The Revenant'". Variety.
36. "The Revenant (2015)". Box Office Mojo.
37. (January 14, 2016). "Oscars 2016: 'The Revenant' and 'Mad Max: Fury Road' lead the pack in Oscar nominations". Orlando Sentinel.
38. (March 30, 2016). "Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way Productions Signs Three-Year Deal With Paramount". The Hollywood Reporter.
39. McClintock, Pamela. (January 14, 2017). "Box Office: Why Ben Affleck's 'Live by Night' and Martin Scorsese's 'Silence' Fared So Poorly". The Hollywood Reporter.
40. Hipes, Patrick. (October 21, 2016). "'The Ivory Game' Trailer: First Look At Netflix's Latest Leonardo DiCaprio-Produced Docu". [[Deadline Hollywood]].
41. Moore, William. (November 17, 2016). "Evening Standard British Film Awards - The Longlist". [[London Evening Standard]].
42. (December 7, 2016). "Lifetime Buys Thriller 'Under the Bed' Starring 'Black Sails' Actress Hannah New (Exclusive)". Variety.
43. Lang, Brent. (September 17, 2015). "How Jason Blum Plans to Upend Film Distribution With 'Green Inferno,' 'Delirium'". Variety.
44. Gyarkye, Lovia. (2023-09-03). "The Featherweight Review: A Poetic Tribute to Boxing Champion Willie Pep".
45. "Killers of the Flower Moon | Now on Digital | Paramount Movies".
46. (August 3, 2020). "Apple Signs First Look TV and Movie Deal With Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way Production Company".
47. Fleming, Mike Jr.. (2020-08-13). "Leonardo DiCaprio & Jennifer Davisson's Appian Way Sets First Look Film Deal At Sony".
48. (April 26, 2007). "The Gardener of Eden". The Hollywood Reporter.
49. "Orphan (2009) {{!}} BFI".
50. Liza Foreman. (November 8, 2012). "'The Wolf of Wall Street' Secures Overseas Distribution in Multiple Territories Through Universal". [[TheWrap]].
51. Dominic Patten. (November 8, 2012). "Universal International Acquires 'Wolf Of Wall Street' European Rights". [[Deadline Hollywood.
52. (February 3, 2023). "Warner Bros Takes Stephen King Bestseller 'Billy Summers', Bad Robot & Appian Way To Produce".