Leonardo DiCaprio will play Leonardo da Vinci in a biopic, following an 'intense' bidding war

Perhaps fulfilling the destiny of his first name, Leonardo DiCaprio is set to star as Leonardo da Vinci in a film about the life of the Renaissance thinker and artist.

Paramount Pictures beat out Universal in an "intense" bidding war for the rights to the biopic, according to Deadline. The film will be based on an upcoming da Vinci book by "Steve Jobs" biographer Walter Isaacson.

According to a reported DiCaprio family legend, Leonardo DiCaprio got his name after his pregnant mother felt him "kicking like crazy one day when his parents were looking at a portrait of Leonardo da Vinci" in an Italian art museum.

Larry Busacca/Getty Images; Hulton Archive/Stringer

No stranger to biopics, DiCaprio won his first best actor Oscar in 2015 for his role as the real-life frontiersman Hugh Glass in "The Revenant." He was also nominated for his portrayals of Howard Hughes in "The Aviator" (2005) and Jordan Belfort in "The Wolf of Wall Street" (2013).

Walter Isaacson's "Steve Jobs" book became a biopic of the same name in 2015, when director Danny Boyle adapted it for the big screen. Isaacson's "Leonardo da Vinci" book will be released in October.

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