Leonardo DiCaprio will finally play his namesake Leonardo da Vinci. Paramount has won the bidding war over the DiCaprio lead feature.

Paramount was in an intense battle with Universal over the rights to Walter Isaacson’s novel about Leonardo da Vinci. The novel is to be adapted as a vehicle for DiCaprio, who is producing alongside Jennifer Davisson under his Appian Way banner.

“Legend has it that Leonardo DiCaprio was so named because his pregnant mother was looking at a Leonardo da Vinci painting in a museum in Italy when the future star kicked for the first time. So it seems like destiny that DiCaprio someday might play his namesake, the artist who painted The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa.”

Appian Way’s DiCaprio and Davisson have a first look deal with Paramount, but it seems Universal wanted some of the action with the Academy award winning actor. They created a two-studio bidding war over Isaacson’s story.

Isaacson is a former Time magazine editor, wrote bestsellers about Benjamin Franklin and Albert Eisenstein. He also wrote Steve Jobs which was turned into a film starring Michael Fassbender, and helmed by Danny Boyle.

“According to info from the publisher, Isaacson used Da Vinci’s notebooks to weave a narrative that connects his art to his science and voracious curiosity and imagination. Aside from his priceless paintings, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy (his iconic drawing of Vitruvian Man), fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology and weaponry. He peeled flesh off the faces of cadavers, drew the muscles that move the lips and then painted history’s most memorable smile. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. ” 

Appian Way moved from Warner Bro to Paramount after DiCaprio won the Oscar for Best Actor for The Revenant. DiCaprio is one of the few actors who still has solid box office pull and consistency with starring in critical successes. DiCaprio has yet to disappoint his audience, and will surly add another incredible acting performance in his filmography.

Source: Deadline.