DiCaprio as HOOVER for Eastwood & a Marlow/Gittes detective for Oliver Stone

Robert De Niro, probably the greatest actor of his generation, portrayed the psychotic Travis Bickle in 'Taxi Driver' at the age of 32; a movie that cemented him in Martin Scorsese's eyes as the actor he wanted to tell his chief tales with. De Niro's Bickle performance came just a year after his Oscar winning role in 'The Godfather: Part II', a double whammy of commitment art and character detail which placed him amongst the acting greats of the late 70's. His next twenty years in film were extraordinary, and redefined what a Hollywood leading man should be. Rather scarily, Leonardo DiCaprio, often compared with De Niro for a variety of reasons, is still only 35 and hasn't hit his peak yet... Already with four leading roles with Scorsese under his belt (and you believe their personal 'Raging Bull' moment is still to come), DiCaprio has recently moved from one directing legend to the next - Steven Spielberg to Edward Zwick to Ridley Scott to Sam Mendes to Chris Nolan. He only works with the best. Not since 2002's 'Gangs of New York', have I failed to be impressed by him, and he has become so much more than the man who is shedding his pretty boy years by making movies that formerly his biggest fans (young girls, women in general) continuously find it hard to be psyched for. Now comes word he is seeking deals to work alongside Clint Eastwood AND Oliver Stone.

The bigger story of the two is that DiCaprio is in "early talks" with director Clint Eastwood to play the title role of J. Edgar Hoover, the first F.B.I. director who we saw pursue "Public Enemy No. 1" John Dillinger in "Public Enemies". Billy Crudrup played the larger than life figure in a supporting role in Michael Mann's movie last year.

We believe however that Dustin Lance Black's ('Milk') script begins later, when Hoover opened thousands of controversial secret files on U.S. citizens he considered as "subversives" or "radicals", and will also delve into his hidden life as a cross-dressing, homosexual. In some ways, it's a similar 'inner-turmoil within a mammoth public figure' to his Oscar nominated performance as Howard Hughes in Scorsese's 'The Aviator'. As much I admire DiCaprio in that movie, and I actually thought he should have taken the Oscar that year (a poor year for leading men, to be fair) - I believe that if he were to do the role over again, he is now of a better age and experience to really knock it out of the park. Hopefully unlike 'The Aviator' - Eastwood's movie will only look at a small life span in Hoover's life and won't try and cover everything because those kind of biopics are rarely great. His last movie 'Invictus', although not one of Eastwood's best - covered a small portion of Nelson Mandela's life, a specific moment in time, and I'm hoping that's what we will get here. Still one of the more fascinating projects in development right now, especially given Black's previous work and Eastwood's conservative values. And then you add DiCaprio in the middle, and wow - what a movie. The project is setup at Warner Bros, and Eastwood is probably mulling over a more poetic title than 'Hoover' right now. Film is likely to shoot this year, Eastwood is currently in post on 'Hereafter' opening in December. The other news story comes from The Hollywood Reporter, who say Oliver Stone will direct DiCaprio in 'Travis McGee' for 20th Century Fox. McGee is a shaggy detective who appeared in 21 novels written by John D. MacDonald - and Fox see this as a property with franchise potential. Stone will direct an adaptation of the first book in the series; 'The Deep Blue Good-by' originally published in 1964. The novel tracks the Florida-based €œsalvage consultant€ as he reluctantly leaves his houseboat to go in search of a treasure hidden by a soldier after World War II. McGee is the shaggy hero of 21 detective novels written by John D. MacDonald and could provide fodder for another Fox franchise. The movie will be based on the first book in the series, €œThe Deep Blue Good-by,€ published in 1964.

The novel tracks the Florida-based €œsalvage consultant€ as he reluctantly leaves his houseboat to go in search of a treasure hidden by a soldier after World War II.

We reported way back in June 2008 that crime director Gary Fleder ('Runaway Jury', 'Kiss The Girls') was set to helm an adaptation for Fox, and then later Robert Schwentke ('Flightplan', 'Time Traveler's Wife') but that project failed when they couldn't find a star. Now DiCaprio and Stone are on board, that problem has disappeared. In a way, it's a legit version of DiCaprio's Teddy Daniels character and Mark Ruffalo's riff on Robert Mitchum in 'Shutter Island', and I'm excited as hell to see it. If both these projects were to keep DiCaprio tied down for the next the rest of 2010, then I would be a very happy man indeed. Given the choice, I'd probably rather see him as an Jake Gittes/Philip Marlow like gumshoe than doing the biopic gig as Hoover, despite my respect for Eastwood but I'm excited to see both these projects made.