Warner Bros. Pictures has tapped the 'Inception' actor to star as Nicholai Hel in the novel-adapted movie about a trained killer during the post-World War II era.
- Oct 4, 2011
AceShowbiz - Leonardo DiCaprio has been tapped in a new film project for Warner Bros. Pictures. Deadline reported that the studio is developing a movie adaptation of Don Winslow's best-selling novel "Satori", and has locked DiCaprio to portray main character Nicholai Hel.
DiCaprio's character is described as a man who is raised in Japan and taught assassin's skills. Also, he is genius at Go, a complex chess-like Japanese traditional game. Hel's master, who is a military general, passes on all his secrets and the student repays his master by assassinating him to prove his devotion because the military leader would have been disgraced and killed as a war criminal.
As a result of his act, Hel is thrown to a prison in Tokyo and tortured there for three years. He is finally released by the CIA after agreeing to kill a Soviet commissioner in China. For the secret task, he is trained by a French beauty he falls in love with.
However, during the dangerous mission, Hel is betrayed by his backers. He then uses his Go skills to arrange strategy to make his way through Vietnam though he's hunted by American, Chinese, Russian and French intelligence agencies as well as a Corsican mob and Vietnamese criminal syndicate.
The story is set in the background of post-Worl War II era. The screenplay will be provided by the novel's author himself, along with the "Armageddon" screenwriter Shane Salerno. Meanwhile, Grisdi Productions' John Lesher and Appian Way's Jennifer Killoran are serving as the producers.
DiCaprio is currently busy filming "The Great Gatsby", where he plays the lead character Jay Gatsby. He will also star in Quentin Tarantino's drama "Django Unchained", playing antagonist Calvin Candie. In the near future, he will be seen in Clint Eastwood-directed biopic "J.Edgar", which will be released in limited U.S. theaters on November 9.
