Leonardo DiCaprio to play Theodore Roosevelt in new biopic, report says

Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio will star as President Theodore Roosevelt in a planned Martin Scorsese film for Paramount Pictures.

Deadline.com reports that DiCaprio, 42 — the same age as Roosevelt in 1901 when he became the youngest U.S. president — would star in the film as well as coproduce the biographical drama. A longtime environmental activist, DiCaprio was drawn to the role in part through his and Roosevelt’s shared concern with conservation, the site said. Roosevelt led Congress to create five national parks and add land to Yosemite, and he himself designated 18 sites as national monuments.

Scorsese has directed DiCaprio in five films: “Gangs of New York” (2002), “The Aviator” (2004), “The Departed” (2006), for which the director won an Oscar, “Shutter Island” (2010), and “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013).

Roosevelt, who as vice president ascended to the White House upon the assassination of President William McKinley, spent much of his adult life at his estate Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay, where he died in 1919. The home, now a National Historic Site, is a popular tourist destination.

In addition to being the 26th president — serving a second, full term beginning 1904 — Roosevelt was minority leader of the New York State Assembly, New York City police commissioner and governor of New York. Famous for his exploits with the volunteer cavalry the Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his part in ending the Russo-Japanese War.