Leonardo DiCaprio. Image courtesy Siebbi (Wikimedia Commons).
Leonardo DiCaprio is set to star in and produce a biopic about US president Woodrow Wilson.
The Great Gatsby star has signed up for the big screen movie about the 28th American president, which is based on A. Scott Berg’s recently released biography Wilson, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Warner Bros. is in talks to pick up the cinematic rights to the book and DiCaprio’s Appian Way production company is expected to join forces with the studio to make the film.
Berg’s book was released last week to high praise for its “intimate portrait” of Wilson, who was elected to power in 1912.
The US president led the country into World War I and was instrumental in supporting the League of Nations, the creation of the Federal Reserve and the Treaty of Versailles.
The commander-in-chief’s life certainly makes for a cinematic experience as he suffered a debilitating stroke whilst travelling tirelessly across America to rally support for the League of Nations.
Wilson was also the final president to wed inside the White House when he married Edith Galt in 1915. The president’s first wife died in 1914, just one year into his first term.
DiCaprio is no stranger to biopics about historical figures after previously playing FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar.
Steven Spielberg recently enjoyed success with his biopic Lincoln, about the 16th US president Abraham Lincoln. The film earned star Daniel Day-Lewis his third Oscar for Best Actor.
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