After Rimbaud, Hoover, Gatsby and Howard Hughes, Leonardo DiCaprio will play… Leonardo da Vinci!
Oscar winner for The Revenant, American actor Leonardo DiCaprio will play the painter of Italian genius Leonard Da Vinci. Specialist in biopics, the actor will once again have the opportunity to show us the palette of his game.
According to the website Deadline, Paramount Pictures has just acquired the biopic of Leonardo Da Vinci produced by and with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role. After an intense bidding war against Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures has just acquired the rights to Walter Isaacson 's book on Leonardo Da Vinci. This book will be adapted by Appian Way, Leonardo DiCaprio 's company who will also be the star. Jennifer Davidson, Leo's partner at Appian Way , will also produce the film.
The book will be published by Simon & Schuster in October. The author Isaacson relied on notes and new discoveries about the painter. This book will therefore be the link between Da Vinci's art and science. Indeed, the painter of the Mona Lisa was also a man of science and technology. Thus, the book and the film will look at this aspect.
It can be said that this is a tailor-made role. Indeed, in 2014, the actor confided in an interview for NPR, why he had been named Leonardo by his parents. "My father told me that my mother and I spent their honeymoon in Florence. In front of a Da Vinci painting in the Uffizi Gallery, I kicked my mother's womb. My father took it as a sign and said, 'This will be our son's name!'" It is the work of fate!
With this role, DiCaprio tackles a multifaceted character of genius. Painter, musician, biologist, mathematician, architect or inventor, the Renaissance artist had a jack-of-all-trades side. In Isaacson' s work, the Florentine genius is first described as the first of the modern inventors.
Embodying creative madness in cinema is a habit for Leonardo DiCaprio. Since the beginning of his career, the actor has already slipped into the skin of several sacred monsters: Arthur Rimbaud in Rimbaud Verlaine, Howard Hughes in Aviator, John Edgar Hoover in J. Edgar, Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street…
But before filming begins and the date of the film is revealed, the committed actor will play music producer Sam Philipps. The latter was a true talent scout and a pioneer of rock'n'roll. He has supported singers such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and King Elvis Presley.
Appian Way, DiCaprio's production company, which has already produced among others Shutter Island or The Revenant is also interested in the origins of the mafia in the United States. Leo will play the role of Joseph Petrosino, considered the founder of the fight against organized crime.
So after Rimbaud, Hoover, Gatsby or Howard Hughes, DiCaprio will shoot his eighth biopic and play the role of Leonardo…But Da Vinci! So beware of misunderstandings. One Leo can hide another…
