Leonardo DiCaprio Will Play Leonardo da Vinci in Biopic

Paramount Pictures has landed the rights to a new book from Walter Isaacson that tells the story of the life of Leonardo da Vinci. The biopic will star Leonardo DiCaprio because, you know, the two share the same first name. It's like Leonardo was born to play Leonardo. Now all DiCaprio needs to do is play the Ninja Turtle Leonardo and all will be right in the world. The report notes:

DiCaprio’s desire to portray da Vinci on film is no coincidence. The actor’s mother famously claims to have chosen the artist as her son’s namesake when she felt an in utero DiCaprio kick for the first time while examining a da Vinci piece at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy back in 1974.

There was a huge bidding war for the unreleased book and Paramount ended up beating out Universal Pictures with a seven figure deal. 

This book is obviously really good and the studios must see that it has some award potential due to the historical figure it's based on and the actor who will portray him. It'll be interesting to see how DiCaprio ends up bringing Da Vinci to life on the big screen. He's an amazing actor, so I'm sure whatever he does will impress.

Now all they need to do is get Martin Scorsese on board to direct! After all, Scorsese has a long history with working with Paramount and DiCaprio. It could be the Aviator of the 16th century. There's currently no director attached, though. Here's the description of the book:

Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy.

He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and technology. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. His ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of Vitruvian Man, made him history’s most creative genius.

His creativity, like that of other great innovators, came from having wide-ranging passions. He peeled flesh off the faces of cadavers, drew the muscles that move the lips, and then painted history’s most memorable smile. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. Isaacson also describes how Leonardo’s lifelong enthusiasm for staging theatrical productions informed his paintings and inventions.

Leonardo’s delight at combining diverse passions remains the ultimate recipe for creativity. So, too, does his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. His life should remind us of the importance of instilling, both in ourselves and our children, not just received knowledge but a willingness to question it—to be imaginative and, like talented misfits and rebels in any era, to think different.

DiCaprio will also produce the film under his Appian Way banner and  Leonardo da Vinci will be released on October 17, 2018.