Leonardo DiCaprio soon in a biopic on Frank Sinatra by Scorsese?

The American director, now 81 years old, does not seem to want to retire. After Killers of the Flower Moon, presented at the last Cannes Film Festival and released in October 2023, he is already preparing two new films: one on Jesus and a biopic on Frank Sinatra.

The filmmaker had already started this ambitious project in 2017, but he was forced to abandon it because the heirs of the famous singer-actor did not wish to divulge all the secrets of the crooner's life. Scorsese told the Toronto Sun at the time: “But if they expect me to do it, they can’t not tell me everything.” The artist's alleged links with the mafia and his tumultuous private life were considered at the time as the reasons why his heirs did not wish to give their approval, and the director abandoned the idea... until today Today!

Negotiations with Frank Sinatra's daughter, Tina Sinatra, have reportedly resumed and Martin Scorsese is already preparing his five-star casting. He actually announced that Leonardo DiCaprio would play the singer in Fly Me To The Moon. The American actor has already worked numerous times with the director (Shutter Island, The Wolf of Wall Street) and this biopic would mark his seventh collaboration with the man he considers a “cinematic father figure”, a mark of admiration proclaimed during a press conference in 2023. If Tina Sinatra has still not given the green light, Sony Pictures is the studio expected to finance the film.

Jennifer Lawrence would be the favorite to play opposite DiCaprio by representing Frank Sinatra's second wife, actress Ava Gardner, on screen. The two actors have already shared the bill in 2021 in the science fiction comedy Don’t Look Up, alongside two leading stars: the gifted Timothée Chalamet and the legendary Meryl Streep.

Biopics are a popular cinematic genre. In 2023, Austin Butler won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama for his performance in Elvis. In February 2024, Bob Marley: One Love pays tribute to the famous reggae singer. And on April 24, the public will be able to discover the life of Amy Winehouse on the big screen in Back to Black.

Martin Scorsese's second project concerns an adaptation of Shūsaku Endō's book, A life of Jesus (1973). The director had already adapted the book Silence (1966) by the Japanese writer in 2016, into a film of the same name, with Andrew Garfield. The filmmaker would like to renew his collaboration with the Spider-Man actor for this new project on Jesus. Miles Teller (Divergent, Top Gun: Maverick) would also be at the top of the list to play one of the characters in the film.