Samiul Bashar Samin
While known for playing iconic characters ranging from Howard Hughes in The Aviator to Hugh Glass in The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio won’t be playing Persian poet Rumi anytime soon.
Screenwriter David Franzoni (Gladiator) and producer Stephen Joel Brown, who are working on a film about the 13th century poet, said in an interview that DiCaprio was their top choice to play Rumi (they also mentioned they’d like Robert Downey Jr. to play Rumi’s spiritual mentor Shams Tabrizi).
It’s safe to say that DiCaprio, who just won his first Oscar for his work in The Revenant, is often at the top of many filmmakers’ wish lists. But the comments by the producers of the Rumi film (which have been picked up by several other news outlets) were just their own dream castings, and sources say no one from the film has reached out to DiCaprio about the indie project. Franzoni and Brown say they hope to shoot next year.
“He hasn’t been asked, but regardless he will not be pursuing the project,” sources close to DiCaprio tell The Hollywood Reporter.