Leondaro DiCaprio Believes In THE CREED OF VIOLENCE?

We haven't seen anything from three time Oscar nominated writer/director Todd Field since his cynical suburban drama Little Children five years ago but as much trouble as he's had finding financial backing for his non-mainstream follow-ups (an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian couldn't get pick up steam, despite the backing of The Social Network producer supreme Scott Rudin), all his studio figthing and frustrations may soon be over. Maybe. You see once a Hollywood A-lister at the top of his game like Leonardo DiCaprio gets interested in one of your projects, well things change dramatically in the minds of studio execs and they will suddenly start saying yes to what they previously said no too. Where once you couldn't get hold of them for days only to eventually hear 'Well, maybe we'll do it but not right now", they suddenly situp and get eager. The L.A. Times reports that DiCaprio has told Universal he is interested in starring in Field's long-gestating Western project The Creed of Violence, an adaptation of Boston Teran's 2010 novel about the American intervention in the 1910 Mexican Revolutionary war and this week the studio made a formal offer for him to star in the film.

"Creed" tells the 1910-era story of a criminal named Rawbone who tries to take a cache of weapons into Mexico as part of the country's revolution but is caught and then accompanied by a government agent who, it turns out, shares a secret past with him.

Field first pitched the project to Universal three years ago before Teran's novel was even published and it's unclear whether he is still working on the picture but at least according to IMDB he remains attached, with a projected 2012 release... not that I would put a great deal of credence in that. Curiously, Field has been taking some photographs out in Durango and Veracruz in Mexico. Was he sight-seeing, fulfilling a hobby or was this part of his pre-production? How the screenplay for such a dead-in-the-water project found DiCaprio, let alone gaged his interest is anyone's guess, as is the knowledge of which of the two leading roles he fancies - though he is playing one of his first villain roles in Quentin Tarantino's forthcoming Django Unchained, so maybe he's done with law enforcement now and is turning to the dark side of his career!! Of course lots of hurdles to jump on this one as last we heard Todd Field was interesting in the heist picture Hubris and was trying to get that in development amidst Michael Mann having the same idea for a film, whilst DiCaprio flirts with a new project every other week and is a difficult man to clamp down. But as a big fan of Westerns, it's great news to hear that recently gun-shy Universal (of course thanks to Leo) are bringing them back to the screen. They happen to have released Cowboys & Aliens today in the U.S...