EXCLUSIVE: Leonardo DiCaprio has committed to star this September in The Revenant, a gritty thriller that Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu will direct for New Regency, for fall 2015 release through Fox. Gonzalez Inarritu and Mark L. Smith co-wrote the script. DiCaprio had been attached to team with Gonzalez Inarritu, but he is attached to many projects; getting the star to commit off his Oscar-nominated The Wolf Of Wall Street performance is a big development for Arnon Milchan and Brad Weston’s game plan to make tasteful, star- and director-driven fare.

Anonymous Content’s Steve Golin, Keith Redmon and David Kanter will produce with Gonzalez Iñárritu, Milchan and James Skotchdopole. Brett Ratner and Paul Green are exec producers. The film will be co-financed by RatPac and Worldview Entertainment, latter of which just partnered with Regency and Fox Searchlight in the Inarritu-directed Birdman, which was just set for release on October 17.

An adaptation of the Michael Punke novel The Revenant: A Novel Of Revenge, Inarritu Gonzalez’s next film will star DiCaprio as Hugh Glass, a 19th century fur trapper who gets mauled by a grizzly bear, and then is left for dead by cohorts who rob him. When he survives, he is as pissed as a bee-stung bear and sets out on a treacherous journey to exact revenge on those who betrayed him. Sean Penn had been circling as one of those bad guys, but he won’t be in the film.

This adds to a pretty good dance card for Regency, which aside from Birdman will this year release the David Fincher-directed Gone Girl with Ben Affleck, and Cameron Crowe’s Hawaii-set film with Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Bradley Cooper and Bill Murray. Next up to go into production this year are Tom Hardy starring in the Doug Liman-directed Ubisoft vidgame adaptation Splinter Cell and Michael Fassbender starring in Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed, which will have a director shortly.

DiCaprio is represented by LBI and Iñárritu by CAA. Smith and Punke are represented by WME and Anonymous.