ScreenCrave.com » Leonardo DiCaprio

Russell Crowe Casting Rumors Near Fatal

Damon Houx — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:22:38 +0000

Remember when we told you that Russell Crowe had at least three projects that he was being considered for? Yeah, that was last week, so now there’s a new Crowe rumor. Vulture says he’s being courted for Jaume Collet-Serra‘s Harker, which is being produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. They also say that Crowe is out for Robocop.

Harker would be a revamping of the Dracula mythology, with Jonathan Harker – usually shown as the weak man who first comes to visit Count Dracula to sell him land – now is being redrawn as a detective hunting vampires. The last time Crowe got involved in a rewrite of a famous legend it was Robin Hood, which then stripped everything interesting about their original concept (that the Sheriff of Nottingham was actually Robin Hood in disguise) and was reduced to being a reboot/prequel.

Of course, what’s most interesting about all of these rumors is that Crowe isn’t seen as a great draw and hasn’t been for a while and yet now he’s getting A list projects virtually thrown at him. Crowe is one of our best actors, so it’s not that it’s a bad thing, it just doesn’t seem motivated by recent great work or being an audience favorite.

What upcoming project would you like to see Crowe attached to next?

First Pictures From ‘The Great Gatsby’ 3-D Adaptation Have Leaked

traviswoods — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:03:49 +0000

Despite the fact that it’s taking a classic piece of American literature and turning it into a 3-D film, Baz Luhrmann’s film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby might not be quite as horrible as we first thought. Of course, I’m basing this opinion simply on a few photos that have leaked out from the set, but, that said, these do seem to capture, in their own small way, the mood and tone of the book.

Of course, these pics should look good, as the film’s budget is over $100 million and features a cast that’s pretty easy on the eye. That said, there’s still no indication if this film will actually be any good, or if there is any real reason for it to be filmed in 3-D besides simple gimmickry.

The Great Gatsby tells the story of Nick Carraway, a young writer who moves to New York in 1922, and comes under the sphere of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire, and his cousin, Daisy. The film adaptation, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, and Carey Mulligan, is set for a Christmas 2012 release.

What do you think of the images from the upcoming The Great Gatsby adaptation?

Source: /Film

J. Edgar: Movie Review

Damon Houx — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:00:10 +0000

Clint Eastwood has been working so hard and so much, it’s easy to be bowled over that an 81-year-old has churned out nearly a film a year for over two decades (generally if he takes a year off it’s because he directed two the year previous). For his latest he’s assembled Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Watts, and Armie Hammer for a portrait of one of the most important and powerful men of the 20th Century: J. Edgar Hoover, who developed the Federal Bureau of Investigations into the complicated and powerful organization it is now. But J. Edgar is sadly undercooked, with all the juicy tales of Hoover and none congealing.

The Players:

Director: Clint Eastwood
Writers: Dustin Lance Black
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Watts, Armie Hammer, Judi Dench
Cinematography by: Tom Stern

The Plot:

Through the framework of J. Edgar Hoover (DiCaprio) dictating his autobiography, the film moves from Hoover’s childhood and interest in the protection of people from communism, to his glory years where he developed the Bureau of Investigation into a powerhouse – especially after the Lindbergh baby kidnapping case – and then his later years, where he butted heads with the Kennedys over organized crime, and thought Martin Luther King was a communist. The most important people in his life seem to be his mother (Dench), his secretary Helen Gandy (Watts) and Clyde Tolson (Hammer), his second in command and rumored lover.

The Good:

On Time and Under Budget: Credit to James Rocchi for that saying, but when it comes to a Clint Eastwood film, that seems to be one of the things that is likeable about it. And Eastwood has a great craft, and there’s no faulting the design or quality of the film itself. It’s handsomely put together, and everyone seems to know what they’re doing.

The Bad:

The Script: It may seem dangerous to come to a thesis when making a film like this, but with so many details of interest in Hoover’s story, you wait for the film to at least make you feel you have an understanding of Hoover, and not just a collection of his greatest hits. The film mentions that in the 1960′s, Hoover thought organized crime didn’t exist, and was more worried about the threat of communism. That’s fascinating and could serve for a great chapter on the man’s life, and yet it’s a sentence in the film. And there are too many sentences and moments that should resonate stronger. Hoover ultimately became dangerous through his organization, but what he did that was bad in the 60′s and 70′s – other than spying on Presidents to keep his job – is backgrounded and the film doesn’t seem to implicate him in the deaths of any of the famous figures at the time. It does a better job of showing him as petty, but never really showcases what made him terrible. Perhaps the film expects us to realize he’s evil, but as a generation has been raised on CSI, that Hoover used scientists and fingerprints to find criminals is appealing. Does the film want to be a balanced portrait of Hoover’s legacy, or is that just what happens when you make a film that is more assemblage of facts than narrative? And the way the film deals with the allegations of homosexuality and cross dressing are laughable, but more damningly don’t really connect to the film at hand. You could snip the two biggest dramatic scenes that relate to those allegations and the film wouldn’t be changed.

Homosexuality: Perhaps that’s why Dustin Lance Black was hired on to write this as he won an Oscar for penning Milk, but his work here needed another draft to make a story out of these elements. The homosexual angle on Hoover would be fascinating if it tied into his work a little more, but the film doesn’t make a case that repression relates to the work, or his later years. This is also bungled when it comes to Naomi Watts’s character, who’s got some of the best moments in the film early on when Hoover is trying to date her, but her character quickly falls into being a secretary and so she dutifully shows up every twenty or thirty minutes in old age make-up to remind you she’s in the film. Cinema has often punished closeted men for being such, and it’s understandable that Black wouldn’t want to turn Hoover into another closet freak, but he’s a freak anyway. And if Hoover was a good lawman ruined by his desire to catch people in scandal, so too is J. Edgar ruined by it’s failure to tie his sexuality into his work.

The Direction: Again, this is undercooked and that’s got to lay at the feet of Eastwood. Though some blanch at the use of the phrase “Oscar Bait,” this team was more assembled and project has the air of “this is a good topic.” I think everyone wanted to work together, but the end results suggest the sort of film that’s not a passion project – comparing this to Bird or White Hunter, Black Heart, and J. Edgar looks undernourished and confused. And though Eastwood’s work has declined in some ways over the years (there are few cheerleaders for Invictus or Hereafter), this appears to be his sloppiest in a long, long time – if those films are less good, with moments of Eastwood’s gift, little here has any charm or resonance. The material doesn’t grip him, and though Eastwood’s got a sure hand, he doesn’t have a three act structure to fall back on so it’s mostly a collage of scenes. Great art often expects you to meet it half way, but films like this expect audiences to do all the heavy lifting. There’s a difference.

Mommy: I wish the character Judi Dench plays had weight, but perhaps it’s because Eastwood doesn’t excel at camp. That’s a strongpoint when navigating tricky material, but when you eventually put Hoover in a dress for one scene, you could see how that might work if the film was done in the spirit of Mommy Dearest. Here, you just cringe for everyone involved.

Overall:

Bad movies aren’t always the ones that are incompetent, sometimes the worst films are the ones that frustrate. There is so much potential for the material in J. Edgar, but the film that was made feels rushed and pointless. Sometimes great people don’t make for great films, but this film is beneath everyone involved.

Rating: 2.5/10

J. Edgar opens wide November 11.

Trailer:

Photos:

Interview: Clint Eastwood and Leonardo DiCaprio on J. Edgar

Damon Houx — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 22:37:14 +0000

When you’re Clint Eastwood, you don’t have to try too hard with certain things. It comes with being a living legend. Want a hot screenwriter? Check: Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black. Want a hot cast? Check: Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Watts and Armie Hammer are ready to work with you. And with J. Edgar, Eastwood assembled this dream team. We got a chance to talk with Eastwood and DiCaprio about the film, check it out…

Did you have more than two or three takes on any one scene that you did?

Leonardo DiCaprio: We actually did a lot of takes on this movie. I never left the set wanting more, that’s for sure. Clint is very adaptable and has his process and what he does is expect you to plant your feet and speak the truth like James Cagney says. That’s what we tried to do our best on this movie, and he gave us everything we could possibly ask for as actors.

Clint Eastwood: What I do is whatever it takes, it takes. Sometimes you see a scene right away and a take looks great so you might print that and you might print a couple more and take elements of all three. You’re looking for the best elements of the scene, but preferably you’d like to have one good take that would go all the way through. But I’m always trying for it on the first take.

That was Don Siegel’s favorite thing. He says I may not get it but I’m always trying for it. I’ve got this reputation for shooting one take which is a wonderful reputation to have but hard to live up to. If I did it, it would be kind of shoddy.

What did you learn about J. Edgar that may have altered your perception of him?

Leonardo DiCaprio: I think the screenplay that Clint and I initially responded to by Dustin Lance Black was a very fascinating portrait of this man, and these characters that had devoted their life to government service and that meant not having any kind of personal life whatsoever. They were representation of the FBI. That was their church. It’s a hard concept to wrap my head around – to completely sacrifice any sort of love in your life, to never experience that on a personal level. All three of these characters lived a life of service to their country.

What I was fascinated by was his take on entering J. Edgar Hoover’s career during a time of almost a terrorist invasion by Communists, the Red Scare, that sort of paranoia that was infused in our country, and the lawlessness of these bank robbers that were going from state to state and becoming free men when they crossed state lines and how J. Edgar Hoover really transformed the police system in America and created this Federal Bureau that to this day is one of the most feared, respected and revered police forces in the entire world. This story goes on to his later years where he became a political dinosaur who didn’t adapt to the changing of our country. It’s very much about the Kennedy years and the Civil Rights movement and Martin Luther King.

The one thing that was prevalent throughout his entire career was his staunch belief that Communism was an evil thing. He wanted to retain the fundamental principles of democracy in our country, but when the Civil Rights movement came along he saw that as an uprising of the people. He stayed in power way too long and he didn’t listen to his own critics and he was a staunch believer in his moral beliefs and his beliefs about what was right for our country. His career ended on a failed note in my opinion. You can’t deny that he wasn’t a patriot but at the same time his tactics were pretty deplorable.

You did a magnificent job in terms of the whole aging process. Did you take a closer look at older people and how they move or is it something that just comes naturally as part of the acting?

Leonardo DiCaprio: Thankfully Clint set that up for the last two weeks of filming so we got to prepare for that and we got to get our footing in our characters and then come to set and the last few weeks we sat in the make-up chair for 5 or 6 or 7 hours and I think a lot of us had our own research on how to do that, but there was a lot of prep time.

The challenge was not just the prosthetic work and how to move like an older man would move but more so how to have 50 years of experience in the workplace and talk to a young Robert F. Kennedy as if he was some political upstart that didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. That was the big challenge for us as actors.

Clint creates an environment for all of us to really focus on the acting and the drama and the interaction with the characters. I keep talking about his style of directing but it’s so catered for actors because he has almost like this splinter cell unit of people on set, the bare minimum. It’s like an elite squadron of Marines that are there and they sort of fade away and then that third wall sort of disappears and you start to feel like you’re actually submerged in reality and you’re really there. For doing difficult stuff like that, it’s incredibly helpful as an actor to feel like you’re immersed in that environment.

Clint Eastwood: Having an 81-year-old director right in front of you is something. I think the best example we had was when we did J. Edgar Hoover going in to see the President, we pretty much duplicated both shots so you’d see Leo going in as a young man and then coming at the final one when he goes into see President Nixon, he goes in and he does the exact same gestures but just as an old man. If you put those two pieces together, you see a dramatic change.

Mr. Eastwood, it’s great that we get to see a new movie of yours every year and now it’s exciting to hear that we might see you in front of the camera again acting. What does it mean to you to have a chance to have an acting role again?

Clint Eastwood: I could say…I could say a lot of things. I could say boredom. Actually it’s kind of based on material. I was just telling somebody a few minutes ago that I’d been trying to retire to the back of the camera for quite a few years. And then, in 1970, when I first started directing, I said you know, if I could pull this off, I can some day just move in back of the camera and stay there. I never was able to pull it off because somebody offered me a role.

Once and a while they come up with a grumpy old men thing and they say “Okay, let’s get Eastwood for that.” Regardless of what age you are, most actors would all agree that it’s all based upon material and the material has got to spark with you. It may be great material, but you think it’s great material for somebody else. Or it’s great material and I’m perfect for it. So, you just have to make that judgment and if you feel in the mood to do it.

Clint, can you talk a little bit about the non-linear nature of the storytelling and the way it shifted through the different time periods? Why did you think that was an important or an effective way to tell the story?

Clint Eastwood: It was an interesting way to go back and forth in time and show him and his present day attitude and how he was when he was younger and just starting out with all kinds of vinegar and ready to roll. I think we stuck pretty well with the formula and it seemed clever to me. By the same token, it helped to go to what everybody is referring to here to justify all these characters.

Hoover, I’m sure, felt that he was right in everything he did and even the things that we don’t like about his character. Everybody always feels that they’re right even if they’re wrong and that’s what a whole actor’s career is built around rationalizing your way into whatever character you’re playing. So it was great fun.

And Helen Gandy, for instance, I’m just deviating a little bit but I’ll get back to it. When I went to the FBI, she was sort of legendary as far as running the place, and even Robert Mueller who’s the director today says “Oh yeah, Helen Gandy, she ran the place.” She was one of those women that would come into a job and pretty soon everybody was relying on her. We listened to the tapes of her talking to the Congressional Committee after Hoover passed to the whereabouts of all of the so-called files. She stood her ground and you could tell she was somebody who was very confident after 50 years of being on that job. Nobody could burn her down. She had her story and stuck to it. Those kind of characters all made it interesting. You get this collage of people that all come from a different place. You ask yourself about Hoover and his relationship with Helen Gandy and his relationship with Tolson, where did it come from? With Tolson, was it just because of lack of trust? Other people come and go and rumors fly in a big organization like that. He had one or two people that he trusted and that was the extent of it probably.

Throughout your careers you’ve come into proximity with people of enormous power, politically and otherwise. How did you take those observations that you’ve made from your own experiences and applied them to Hoover’s story?

Clint Eastwood: Well, with people in high office, the old – they go into the extreme, which is absolute power and absolute power corrupts and what have you, so there’s always the corrupting thing with the 48-year stint as the director of the Bureau of Investigation. And because he formed it all and he had the trust of various executives along the way they just relied on him and nobody could remove him.

There are so many parallels in society today that you can use, whether it’s the head of studio or a head of an organization, a major newspaper, a major factory or company, of people who stay too long, maybe, and overstay their usefulness.

I have great respect for the FBI, and I knew there have been some rumors lately that the FBI was disenchanted because of what we were doing in story, or doing a certain take: that’s not true. Actually the FBI was tremendously enthusiastic about us doing this film. They didn’t read the script, though. They know nothing about it. Their philosophy is ‘Go ahead and make the story you want to make, and hopefully we’ll love it.’ So that’s that.

Your screenwriter was born after Mr. Hoover passed away, while Mr. Eastwood, you lived through some of the Hoover era. Did that inform how you went about the material, having experienced some of that period?

Clint Eastwood: Well, I just kind of had my own impressions growing up with Hoover as a heroic figure in the 40s – actually the 30s, 40s, and 50s and beyond – but this was all prior to the information age so we didn’t know about Hoover except what was in the papers. This was fun, because it was a chance to go into it. And Lance had gone and done stuff from autobiographical material and biographies from other people, and it was fun to delve into a character that you’d heard about all your life but you never really knew and try to sort that out.

We never knew too much about the Tolson, the Gandy…any of his close confidants, but through researching this movie that was what was fun about making the movie: you get to learn something about people. And then watching the other actors and everybody – we’re all just kind of learning history, or putting our stamp on history, our interpretation of it. Sure, a lot of things probably didn’t happen exactly the way they happen in this film, but they’re pretty close, and Lance had done a great job of researching what time certain events happened in history so they could coincide with other events.

How did making this movie and learning this story affect how you think about the idea of privacy? Something that Hoover went about destroying for people when they met his hands.

Leonardo DiCaprio: It’s interesting in this day and age to do a film about political espionage and wiretapping. I don’t think that those kinds of secrets that J. Edgar Hoover was able to obtain and keep for such a long period of time would be possible in today’s world, with the Internet, Wikileaks…It doesn’t seem like those kinds of secrets can be kept for that long period of time.

This is a different day and age, and there were huge, catastrophic events that were going to happen if we didn’t have a federal police system like that investigating a lot of activities that were going on in our country. It still goes on to this day, obviously. I mean, it’s an argument or a topic that people could talk about until they’re blue in the face, whether that type of information being released to the public is a positive or a negative thing. I suppose it depends on the particular event or subject matter. But I don’t think that J. Edgar Hoover would be able to do the same job in today’s era with all this massive distribution of information in a matter of seconds. It was a different era and time.

Clint Eastwood: He sure would be able to store the material easy. Just go around with a little iPad and have everybody in there.

Aging, has it affected you—

Clint Eastwood: What was that again?

Leonardo DiCaprio: Has aging affected you?

Clint Eastwood: I haven’t heard it. I haven’t (laughs)…I think aging, so far, has been okay. I think it’s been good. A lot of people regret, because we live in a society that reveres being at the prime of life and everything, but you have certain primes at certain times, and mine happens to be…

Leonardo DiCaprio: Happens to be right now.

Clint Eastwood: …It happens to be, I think, now. I think I am doing better at certain things right now than I have in the past, and maybe not so good at others.

Leonardo DiCaprio: From an outsider’s perspective, it’s amazing what he does. If he’s not directing a film, he’s acting in it, or rather he’s composing the music for that film. His commitment to what he does is astounding. For all of us to witness. It’s inspiring, actually.

Clint Eastwood: I do believe if one keeps busy it’s very good for a person. In fact, people are always rushing into retirement and we read in Europe people there are talking about their retirement age and moving it to 67 or something. Well, back when they started retirement funds and everything, the average age was 70 or 60, and then all of a sudden now it’s 80, and so… Oh, I’ve passed it, haven’t I? And so you keep in shape, you keep yourself mentally in shape. And if you keep yourself mentally in shape, chances are physically it will follow suit.

How do you think the myth of J. Edgar Hoover informs Dirty Harry?

Clint Eastwood: I don’t think Hoover conforms to Dirty Harry at all. Dirty Harry was a mythical character that came along. Don Siegel and I approached it as an exciting detective story, nothing too much except it. The writer of that, Harry Julian Fink had written it that he was a man concerned with the victim and this came about at a period of time when everyone was obsessed with the rights of the accused. So all of a sudden we come out with a detective story with a lot of violence and stuff but it was also concerning the rights of the victims. Shortly after that, there became all kinds of victims’ rights organizations, so we felt maybe we were ahead of the curve on that.

Maybe I haven’t the parallel though because Hoover was an administrator. Even though this congressman in the picture is giving him a hard time and this all happened in real life so he ended up making arrests and stuff, but he was an administrator. He administrated a very large organization so why would he be out on the street making arrests? That’s what he has his agents for. He was just under scrutiny from people because they disliked him or he was aggressive or whatever.

Leo, why are you drawn to characters involved in social/historical stories?

Leonardo DiCaprio: I think Lance put it best when he said, “Look, if we can better understand these people and their motivations and how this event manifested itself to their politics, we can learn from them. We can learn from history.” To me, you couldn’t write a character like J. Edgar Hoover and have it be believable. I mean, he was a crock pot of eccentricities. We couldn’t even fit all his eccentricities into this movie. We could go on and on.

The fact that this man was, like he said, if not the most powerful man in the last century, one of the most in our country and he lived with his mother until he was 40 years old. He listened to his mother for political advice. The more I dug deep, you understand the history of the child and what motivated these people at a very early age, she wanted the Hoover name to rise to great glory in Washington so he was this incredibly ambitious young genius that really transformed our country and created this federal bureau that to this day is revered and feared. Yet he was a mama’s boy. He was incredibly repressed emotionally. His only outlet was his job. He wasn’t allowed to have any kind of personal relationships, or he felt that.

No matter what his sexual orientation was, he was devoted to his job and power was paramount to him and holding onto that power at all costs was the most important thing in his life. He should’ve retired much sooner than he did and many presidents tried to oust him later on in his career as depicted with Nixon as well. That was everything to him and he didn’t adapt or change to our country and that is one of the most important things a political leader can do. For me as an actor, I just loved researching this stuff. So much about – - we got to take a trip to Washington and I got to meet people who knew him and really understand and capture this guy to the best of my abilities. That’s half the fun of making a movie for me.

Was this an education for you?

Leonardo DiCaprio: Yeah, it is. It’s an incredible education. It was like I did a college course on J. Edgar Hoover but not knowing and understanding the history and reading the books, but understanding what motivated this man was the most fascinating part of the research.

Do you worry this will hurt your career?

Leonardo DiCaprio: No, not at all. I don’t have to sympathize or empathize with a human being in order to be able to portray them. I mean, some of the greatest roles that actors have been able to play haven’t been the most endearing on screen.

Clint Eastwood: It’s been historically actors have been made very famous for roles that were something that was far – - Richard Widmark could come to mind or something like that, where you do some famous role and everybody imitates you for the rest of your life. But obviously it’s much more fun to play something you’re not than it is something you are.

J. Edgar opens November 11.

Leonardo Di Caprio in the First Trailer for Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar

Damon Houx — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 02:28:20 +0000

Leonardo DiCaprio. Clint Eastwood. J. Edgar. Is it Oscar time already? That’s the vibe coming off of Eastwood’s latest, which just had its trailer release. It fits a lot of bio-pic formulas, with Judi Dench playing his mother, and Armie Hammer playing his possible lover. Once revered as a feared lawman, now seen as corrupt as some of the people he went after, J. Edgar Hoover’s life is juicy subject matter, but it’s unknown how it’s been cooked. Check out the trailer…

If we were crappy pundits, the tagline for this trailer would be “J. Edgar Snoozer” as it looks like a bio-pic in the worst way. From the presence of his mother to the old age make up, it doesn’t feel like Eastwood and company have improved upon the Citizen Kane formula – which this recalls.

DiCaprio likely wants an Oscar, and Eastwood seems to be in that mode where all he does is pump out respectable movies. If Gran Torino offers some small pleasures it was that it at least felt like a slight return to his older characters. Maybe this is a great film, and the scope is hard to contain in less than two minutes and thirty seconds. At least, let’s hope so.The film opens November 9.

Does Leonardo DiCaprio deserve an Oscar now?

The Latest Scuttlebutt on Django Unchained

Damon Houx — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:59:55 +0000

When last we talked about Quentin Tarantino‘s latest Django Unchained, Jamie Foxx was the odds-on frontrunner for the lead character. That is now locked up. CNN talked to Foxx recently, and he said the dull platitudes expected of someone up for a big role. “Amazing” Foxx says. It “should be amazing.” Well, duh. The money quote is that he seems to suggest that Leonardo DiCaprio is also a lock the project. “I think, just to be able to work with Quentin Tarantino and Samuel Jackson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and to be able to tell a story that needs to be told…”

DiCaprio hasn’t signed the dotted line yet, and he just worked with Clint Eastwood on J. Edgar. Eastwood said he’d like Leo to be in his remake of A Star is Born with Beyonce Knowles, but there’s no way Di Caprio could do both – both roles would position him for an Oscar, and double dipping (even if one role is supporting), tends to lead to a cancel-out, especially if the better performance is in the supporting role. That on top of scheduling conflicts, it seems that Eastwood is the one who will have to go fishing for another lead.

Christoph Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson are also up for roles in Django, but at this point it’s just assumed they’ll take them. Such is Hollywood.

Are you more excited for Django Unchained or Eastwood’s Star is Born?

Leonardo DiCaprio Signs $5 Million Deal To Promote Cell Phones In China

traviswoods — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:47:54 +0000

Wow—some guys really know how to get ahead in the business.

Or, at least, Leonardo DiCaprio does. After starring in such blockbusters as Inception, Shutter Island, and that one movie about the boat and the old lady and big diamond thing that let James Cameron be in the water again, Leo is taking a breather to star in a commercial. For a Chinese cell phone company. For five million dollars.

Please excuse me while I pick myself up from the floor and get back in the chair here.

Ok, that’s better.

Yep, Leo is set to star in his next role as a pitchman in China for Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corp, and is making a cool $5 million for it. It’s not big surprise, on one hand—celebrities often promote items overseas (including DiCaprio, who, according to E! Online, “has also appeared in ads for watch-maker Tag Heuer and Suzuki”).

What is unusual is the actor’s price tag, as $5 million “among the most lucrative one-off endorsement deals to date for the star.” Because, again, it’s five million dollars to talk about cell phones.

So if you’ll please excuse me, I’m going to no go in front of my local Verizon store and start screaming at passersby about my amazing Smartphone setup. That should at least snag me a couple grand, right?

What do you think of the DiCaprio news?

DiCaprio Reunites with Scorsese for The Wolf on Wall Street

Krystal Clark — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:04:52 +0000

Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese just can’t get enough of each other. The duo have decided to collaborate on another film project called The Wolf on Wall Street. No, it’s not about an actual wolf and it’s not a horror film (damn!) but we’re sure it will be just as enticing.

Both DiCaprio and Scorsese became attached to the project shortly after their collaboration on the Oscar winning film The Departed. “Based on Jordan Belfort’s memoir, Wolf chronicles the author’s debauched, hard-partying rampage in the world of high finance during the go-go ’90s. Belfort’s law-breaking bender eventually landed him in federal prison.”

“After almost four years in development, I can’t begin to tell you how thrilled I am to finally be working with Leo and Marty on this,” said Belfort. “They’re the ultimate dream ream, and it was definitely worth the wait.”

This will mark the fifth film that the duo have worked on together. But DiCaprio still falls short of the eight that Robert De Niro has in the can with the Scorsese but he’s getting there.

What do you think of DiCaprio and Scorsese taking on the film?

Source: EW

Photos: Leonardo DiCaprio, Judi Dench, Armie Hammer on J. Edgar Set

Krystal Clark — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 19:23:13 +0000

Earlier this week we brought you the first photos from Clint Eastwood’s upcoming biopic J. Edgar. They featured Oscar nominee Leonardo DiCaprio as the title character, and he was dressed from head to toe in 1940′s garb. Today more paparazzi shots have made their way online and they feature Armie Hammer and Judi Dench. Take a look…

J. Edgar will cover the head of the FBI and his reign from its creation in 1935 to his death in 1972. The film will be produced by Brian Grazer and has a script written by Oscar winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk). The film stars DiCaprio, Naomi Watts, Ed Westwick, Josh Lucas, Damon Herriman, and Ken Howard.

Hammer plays lawyer-turned-FBI-official Clyde Tolson, whom was also rumored to be Hoover’s lover. This was the role that Joaquin Phoenix was speculated to play. Tolson was the associate director of the FBI from 1947 to 1972. He was in daily close contact with Hoover at the office and the pair often dined, socialized in night clubs, and even vacationed together.

Dench will star as Hoover’s mother Anne Marie, and as you can see from these photos he’s very close to her.

What do you think of the latest photos from the set of J Edgar?

Source: Accidental Sexiness

First Look: Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover

Krystal Clark — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:03:28 +0000

Last year, Leonardo DiCaprio announced that production on his next film J. Edgar would begin sometime around February of 2011. True to his word, filming has begun and we’ve got our first look at the actor after he’s been transformed into the title character. Several photos were taken of DiCaprio while on break during the shoot in Los Angeles. You can check them out below…

J. Edgar will cover the head of the FBI and his reign from its creation in 1935 to his death in 1972. The film will be produced by Brian Grazer and has a script written by Oscar winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk). The film stars DiCaprio, Naomi Watts, Armie Hammer, Judi Dench, Ed Westwick, Josh Lucas, Damon Herriman, and Ken Howard.

We smell another Oscar nomination on the horizon for Mr. DiCaprio. He has some great source material to work with when it comes to this man’s complicated life. There are questions about Hoover’s ethics, his resources, and even his love life, all of which will be addressed in the movie.

J. Edgar will be directed by Clint Eastwood.

What do you think of DiCaprio’s take on Hoover?

Source: JustJared

Leonardo DiCaprio is the Highest Grossing Actor of 2010

Krystal Clark — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 22:47:22 +0000

Leonardo DiCaprio won big this year with roles in two number one films including Shutter Island and the summer smash, Inception. Both movies were well received critically and commercially and allowed him to work with amazing directors Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan. Now according to Forbes, DiCaprio has been named 2010′s highest grossing actor. See who came in at number two as well as the rest of this year’s big winners…

1. Leonardo DiCaprio

2. Mia Wasikowska

3. Johnny Depp

4. Robert Downey, Jr.

9. Jaden Smith

10. Jackie Chan

DiCaprio’s two films earned over $1 billion at the worldwide box office, while Mia Wasikowska’s lead role in Alice in Wonderland (which earned $1 billion alone) and The Kids Are All Right helped land her a spot making her at 21, the youngest on the list. It turns out she’s a few months shy of Daniel Radcliffe’s age. And no one should be surprised that Downey made it on here considering the combined gross of Iron Man 2 and Due Date is over $800 million worldwide.

Robert Pattinson upstaged his Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart because of his solo effort Remember Me, and Jaden Smith did the same with Jackie Chan who appeared with him in this summer’s The Karate Kid.

What do you think of the highest grossing actors of 2010? Any surprises?

Leonardo DiCaprio to Star in Legacy of Secrecy

Krystal Clark — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 16:34:14 +0000

Leonardo DiCaprio is at it again. The Academy Award nominated actor has another high end drama waiting for him in the wings. Last weekend, he confirmed that he would begin shooting Clint Eastwood’s biopic Hoover early next year, and today Variety is reporting that he’ll also star as the lead in the adaptation of the book, Legacy of Secrecy.

According to the trade, DiCaprio will produce and star in the film which will center on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Do we smell another incarnation of Oliver Stone’s 1991 film, JFK on the horizon? Will DiCaprio do his best Kevin Costner impression? Warner Bros will distribute Legacy of Secrecy, and guess what else they distributed 19 years ago? JFK! Someone over there has a thing for the former prez.

DiCaprio is set to play an FBI informant named Jack Van Laningham. The book from which the film is based called, “Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination” and it suggests “that Mafia godfather Carlos Marcello confessed to Van Laningham to having ordered JFK’s assassination. As part of a dangerous and long-secret undercover operation, the FBI positioned Van Laningham to become confidant to Marcello, who ruled organized crime in Louisiana and most of Texas for decades.”

The book includes some sensitive information which was obtained from declassified FBI files from the National Archives. Once again, DiCaprio is tackling a serious and deep story about corruption and disintegration of relationships.That man has great taste in scripts.

What do you think of DiCaprio’s latest movie choice?

ScreenCrave.com » Leonardo DiCaprio

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Rating: 2.5/10

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Photos:

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