Although he's now got an Oscar on his shelf at long last, Leonardo DiCaprio looks like he's making space for another one with his latest project sounding particularly award-friendly.
Deadline reports that a recent biography on the famed painter is now at the centre of a major bidding war between Universal and Paramount, with Leonardo DiCaprio's production company Appian Way in the middle of it with the man himself, Leonardo DiCaprio, set to star as his namesake.
The biography in question was written by Walter Isaacson, who wrote the biography of Steve Jobs that eventually became the Danny Boyle-directed, Aaron Sorkin-scripted, Michael Fassbender-starring film of the same name. Coincidentally enough, Leonardo DiCaprio was in the running to play Jobs back when David Fincher was originally attached to direct.
Universal and Paramount are now locked in a desperate bidding war to get the film on their slate, with seven-figure sums being offered for the rights of the book with DiCaprio packaged in with the deal. It's early days yet, of course, and no director or screenwriter has been lined up, but these days, all you need to do is package an actor with a story to get it on the road.
DiCaprio has a number of other projects lined up, including real-life horror story The Devil In The White City, based on the murders of H.H Holmes, with Martin Scorsese set to direct that film. As well as this, DiCaprio is also said to be involved with a biopic about Richard Jewell, the security guard from the Atlanta 1996 Olympics who helped evacuate athletes and was later accused of planting the bomb himself.
So, can you see Leonardo DiCaprio as Leonardo Da Vinci? They've got the names sorted already, so that's something at the very least, and we know DiCaprio has experience of drawing women in Titanic - so it's all coming together.
Via Deadline