Leonardo DiCaprio Has Deja Vu With His Upcoming Roles

Posted Wednesday, November 27, 2002 at 4:09 PM Central

by Tim Briscoe

There's a bevy of new movie projects starring Leonardo DiCaprio and they all seem to involve people he's worked with before -- and many involve Leo's portrayal as a historical figure.

Next up for Leo is The Aviator, the story of eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes. The film will reunite him with director-extraordinaire Martin Scorsese. The duo's Gangs of New York comes to theaters Dec. 20. Then on Christmas Day, DiCaprio's Catch Me If You Can, with director Steven Spielberg, will debut in theaters.

After The Aviator, Leo will star as another person from history. This time as Alexander The Great. The project is lead by director Baz Luhrmann, his director for 1996's Romeo + Juliet.

Leo will then star with his This Boy's Life and Marvin's Room co-star Robert De Niro in The Good Shepherd. The film centers around Leo as one of the founding officers of the CIA. De Niro is scheduled to direct.

Our final bit of Leo news is the one we're the most excited about -- his re-teaming with What's Eating Gilbert Grape director Lasse Hallström. Bombshell is the true story of Ted Hall, a nuclear scientist who spilled the beans about many of the United States' nuclear secrets to the Soviets in an effort to maintain world peace. Instead, Hall's actions have been seen by many as the start of the Cold War.

DiCaprio will produce Bombshell. We have high expectations for the project partly because of the talents of Hallström who has been nominated twice for the Best Director Academy Award. DiCaprio earned his only Oscar nomination for his role as Arnie Grape, the mentally-retarded brother of Johnny Depp, in Gilbert Grape.

Here's hoping for some actual golden statuettes from the DiCaprio-Hallström team with Bombshell.