Leonardo DiCaprio to play Leonardo da Vinci in new film, report says

Leonardo DiCaprio is slated to play the title role in a biographical drama about Leonardo da Vinci, the legendary Renaissance inventor, sculptor and artist behind the “Mona Lisa,” “The Last Supper” and more.

Deadline.com reported over the weekend that Paramount Pictures outbid Universal Pictures in a seven-figure auction for the upcoming book “Leonardo da Vinci” by Walter Isaacson, whose previous works include the best-selling biography “Steve Jobs.” DiCaprio, 42, will produce and star through his production company, Appian Way Productions.

The Oscar winner and environmentalist has not commented on social media.

Appian Way has produced such DiCaprio films as “The Aviator” (2004), “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013) and “The Revenant” (2015), as well as movies with other stars, such as “Red Riding Hood” (2011) with Amanda Seyfried, “Runner Runner” (2013) with Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake, and “Live by Night” (2016) with Affleck and Elle Fanning. It also has produced documentaries and low-budget independent features.

The British tabloid Sunday People, in an April 1998 article, attributed to DiCaprio a quote saying he had been named after da Vinci — “My mom felt me kicking while they were looking at a Leonardo da Vinci painting in the Uffizi gallery in Florence and they took it as a message” — but it was unclear where that purported quote originated.

A 1995 New York Times Magazine profile gives the anecdote without a quote.