Warner Bros. brought on Martin Scorsese as the executive producer of its new Joker film with the hope that the renowned director could convince his protégé, Leonardo DiCaprio, to play the titular character. Whether or not DiCaprio signs on for his first-ever comic book role remains to be seen, but he and Scorsese do have several other collaborative projects in the works. Among them: adaptations of Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City and David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon. Now, comes word of a third collaboration, one which will see DiCaprio portraying the 26th president of the United States.
According to Variety, a Theodore Roosevelt biopic is in the works at Paramount, with Scorsese set to direct a script written by Scott Bloom. As a staunch environmental advocate, Variety notes that DiCaprio was likely intrigued by the idea of playing a president noted for his conservationism. Plus, they do bear an uncanny resemblance.
There’s no timetable for the film’s release, but Scorsese only recently started production on his much-anticipated mob thriller, The Irishmen, starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci. DiCaprio, meanwhile, is set to star in the true crime drama The Black Hand for his first role since finally achieving Oscar gold with The Revenant.
