The Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio, a Modern and contemporary art collector, is set to play his Old Master namesake, Leonardo Da Vinci, in an eponymous biopic on the Renaissance polymath. The film is based off of Walter Isaacson’s biography on Da Vinci, due to be released in October, which draws heavily on the Renaissance man’s notebooks. As reported by Deadline Hollywood, Paramount Pictures snapped up the film rights to Isaacson’s book on Saturday (12 August) after a heated bidding war with Universal Pictures. DiCaprio is due to serve as a producer for the film through Appian Way Productions, which he founded. Leo’s link with the artist goes back to his days in utero: he was reportedly named Leonardo because his pregnant mother first felt him kicking while she looked at a Da Vinci painting in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery. She must have gotten a kick out of this news.
