Leonardo DiCaprio Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Hold onto your seats, Rounders fans -- it looks like round two is about to descend. Now, I'm not talking about a sequel, even though we'd all love more screen-time with the poker movie's killer cast, but rather a new gambling feature from Rounders scribes Brian Koppelman and David Levien. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Paramount has picked up the writers' latest pitch, and Leonardo DiCaprio (who is also starring in the pair's Beat the Reaper) will grab the lead.

Per usual, not a whole heck of a lot is being released about the plot right now. However, the little that is being said reveals a modern edge -- the feature will delve into the world of online casinos based in Costa Rica. Whether that focus is on the casinos themselves or the people who frequent them remains to be seen, but I'm betting on the latter.

Is it wrong to already be antsy for this film? Koppelman and Levien don't have a perfect track record, but Rounders merged with DiCaprio, who always seems to pick great gigs, seems like something darned close to a perfect bet. Heck, at the very least, it has to be better than the gambling schlock that's hit the screens and boob tubes recently.

You probably remember that a little over a year ago, the news hit that Leonardo DiCaprio would be producing a live action version of the beloved anime, Akira, and as to be expected, fans were peeved. Within minutes, comment boards (including ours) were jammed with cries of white-washing, racism, and general predictions of overall crappiness. But, if you happen to have been one of those fans crying for blood; I've got some good news for you. Bloody Disgusting now reports that the live-action Akira has been pronounced "Dead as a doornail" by not one, but two inside sources -- I guess we should have seen this coming when the film was promised to be released in 2009, and there wasn't a signed cast member in sight.

For those not familiar with Akira, it was the story of a teen biker gang member who is subjected to government experiments and unleashes destruction on a post-nuclear Tokyo. Ruairi Robinson had originally been slated to direct a script by Gary Whitta (Book of Eli), but DiCaprio had promised that they wouldn't be moving ahead with Akira until they had a quality script, so maybe Whitta could have been the source of the delay. Either way, I guess we can all breathe a sigh of relief that Tetsuo and the gang are safe from the monster known as 'reboot fever'...at least for now, anyway.

After the jump; status reports on other classic anime in line for a Hollywood makeover...

There's a caveat or two with which I submit this list of our favorite con artists on film, to correspond with tomorrow's NY/LA bow of The Brothers Bloom (our review from Toronto is here; our interview with director Rian Johnson, there).

One: I have not seen the following -- David Mamet's House of Games, David Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner, and David Mamet's Frank Oz's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I know, for shame, boo and hiss and so on and so forth.

Two: I've seen but don't fully recollect either The Grifters or Nine Queens enough to feel comfortable including them as if I had (I also missed the English-language remake of the latter, Criminal, though I've been told that's for the best). If I were a slier man, then maybe I could fittingly deceive the lot of you, but I'm not, so I won't.

While I don't doubt that the characters in those films would be worthy of a slot on our list, there are still at least seven other con (wo)men in the movies worth shining the spotlight on, and I do hope that you do think that may make do when all's said and done.

Over at Deadline Hollywood, Nikki Finke is reporting that Martin Scorsese will direct and produce a film about the life of famed singer Frank Sinatra for Universal, after the studio acquired the project from Mandalay Pictures and secured the hard-to-get blessing from the Sinatra family. Tina Sinatra will executive produce, along with Phil Alden Robinson (who's also writing the script) and Gary LeMel.

Right now there's no word on casting, though logically we all must turn to Scorsese's latest muse, Mr. Leonardo DiCaprio. One imagines his name will creep its way to the top of the list, though, in my opinion, DiCaprio looks a little too boy-ish to play Sinatra. Maybe he'd pass for really young Sinatra (especially the hair and the eyes), but even so I think it would take a little work to turn DiCaprio into a convincable Frank. It also depends on whether the actor playing Sinatra will perform Sinatra's songs, or if they'll simply lip-sync? That little factor could introduce a whole new crop of actors, some of which may be complete unknowns. Would Scorsese cast an unknown in the lead? Doubt it, but it'll be fun to watch this one come together assuming Finke's reportage is true.

Who do you think should play Frank Sinatra? Is DiCaprio our only solid option?

UPDATE: Variety has confirmed this to be true.

Accountability has been the watchword in Hollywood lately, especially after all the mess that followed Slumdog Millionaire. But just sometimes, a nice story comes out of Tinseltown, so why not celebrate it?

The BBC reports that the big names behind Titanic, Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, and James Cameron, have pulled together $30,000 to help Millvina Dean, a 97-year-old woman who just so happens to be the last living survivor of the Titanic disaster. The woman, who has been struggling with steep monthly bills at her nursing home, had begun to auction personal belongings and Titanic memorabilia to make ends meet. Now a fund has been set up for her, and the Titanic trio pitched in. Fund creator Don Mullan said: "I laid down the challenge to the Titanic actors and directors to support the Millvina Fund and I was delighted with the generosity they have shown in meeting that challenge."

Remember that whole "women and children" first thing? When the lifeboats had to be rationed? She was one of those children, saved along with her mother and sibling by her dad, who then perished when the ship sunk.

Now if only those who are accountable for people's hardships could be as generous...

Here's what we currently know about Christopher Nolan's between-Batmans project, Inception:

• It is not, as initially asserted by a commenter, concerning "a war for the colonization of Venus."


• It is more likely along the lines of a sci-fi action film "set within the architecture of the mind" (which, coming from the brains behind The Dark Knight, The Prestige, and Memento, is a scary-thrilling thought).


• Currently on board are Leonardo DiCaprio (as some sort of CEO), Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy, and Michael Caine...

...and, according to THR, rounding out the ensemble (for now) are Ken "Batman Begins" Watanabe as a blackmailing villain and Tom "apparently awesome in Bronson" Hardy as a colleague of DiCaprio's.

Sorry to be Avatar-level vague, but with a cast like this and a crew like that, there's little left to do but twiddle our thumbs and hope for the best between now and next summer. Either that, or Nolan just recast most of the third Batman film and doesn't want Christian Bale to know...

Aside from the obvious cachet of being Chris Nolan's writing and directing follow-up to The Dark Knight, next year's Inception has the most intriguing teaser description I've heard in a while: it's billed as a sci-fi action film "set within the architecture of the mind." I have no earthly idea what that means, though I'm imagining something like the old "Body Wars" ride at Epcot Center, where you were shrunk to microscopic proportions and went on a simulated flight through the human body. Light saber battles on the parietal lobe! What? No takers?

As with every other movie coming out in 2009 and 2010, Leonardo DiCaprio is now attached to star. I mock DiCaprio's ubiquity, but I'm never sorry to see him: over the past few years it's become clear that he's a pretty brilliant guy. He knows how to pick material, too; he's fond of prestige projects, but he seems to have an eye for the good ones. His next film is his fourth Martin Scorsese collaboration, Shutter Island. And Inception is sci-fi from one of Hollywood's smartest screenwriters (and I'm not even necessarily talking about The Dark Knight).

Anyway, speculation on what an action film "set within the architecture of the mind" might entail, if you please. I'm sticking with my "Body Wars" hypothesis until further notice. In 3D, of course.

Now that it looks like Soderbergh and his crew are finished with the Ocean's series, perhaps some Scorsese veterans can pick up the torch and roll with it. The New York Post's Page Six reports that during a recent Oscar party hosted by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Joe Pesci were off huddled in a corner talking shop. What kind of shop, you ask? Well, supposedly they were discussing a possible film they'd all co-star in; an "Italian-flavored heist" is how Page Six puts it.

It's hard to imagine these three guys coming together for a film without Marty Scorsese behind the camera, but the director seems pretty busy with other projects (like Silence), though one imagines nothing is set in stone until, well, it's set in stone. Then again, maybe they're coming together for another director (De Niro, perhaps?), without Scorsese? Either way, I'm definitely intrigued to not only watch De Niro and Pesci reteam on the big screen, but also to see DiCaprio (who co-starred with De Niro in This Boy's Life) thrown into the mix. And for a slick heist film, no less. Of course it's all rumors and speculation right now, but we'll let you know if any more news comes our way.

I thought we'd already been through this... The initial rumors and first word of a WarGames sequel, the silence followed by the inevitable continuation of the project, and the ill-reviewed and mostly ignored result. But this is Hollywood, and at least they doggedly stick to their try and try again mentality, and this time, there's a good chance that this won't be an ignorable project.

While Production Weekly is subscriber-only, they have a Twitter feed that shares little morsels of news, like the following report: "Leonardo DiCaprio looking to reboot the 80's thriller "War Games" at MGM." Yes, move over Matt Lanter, Leo wants to to do his own take on WarGames. But this won't be a sequel, this will be one of those dreaded reboots. First Ralph Maccio gets replaced with Jaden Smith, now Matthew Broderick will be replaced with ... I shudder to think.

I'm not sure how WarGames re-dos fit into a professional life busy with acting gigs like Beat the Reaper and production gigs like Akira, but maybe this is only the first breaths of a project that will fall into development hell. Oh, how I hope. But how about you? Are you super-excited to see WarGames rebooted?

Le sigh. The idea of Leonard DiCaprio beating the Reaper inspires notions of Leo facing the evil and irresistible grin of Ray Wise. (He's fun and all in Reaper, but it would be so much cooler to see Wise take the devilish role to darker, eerier places.) Unfortunately, that's not this kind of reaper. In fact, it's not a devil-led reaper at all.

Variety reports that New Regency is working on getting the rights to Josh Bazell's upcoming novel Beat the Reaper, for Leonardo DiCaprio to star in. Unlike the reaper-riffic television show, the book follows an emergency room doctor in New York City whose life is going smooth and easy until he runs into a mobster. However, this isn't a case of the crimelord corrupting the doc and making his life miserable -- rather, the mobster recognizes the doctor as a former hitman. See, the man went into the witness protection program, cleaned up his act, and became a body fixer, rather than a body-breaker.

Well, while I wish we could get big-screen Wise, this definitely sounds like a fun twist on the whole "running into a mobster" scenario. Thoughts?