DiCaprio To Play Rasputin?

Leonardo DiCaprio, last seen in The Great Gatsby, is set to take on the role of Rasputin for a new film which Warner Brothers are producing.  Based on the spec script written by American Sniper writer Jason Hall, the film will see DiCaprio play the infamous Russian mystic who was said to have connections to dark magic.  Rasputin was welcomed into Tsar Nicholas II’s family as a healer to help with son Alexei’s haemophilia.  His influence became so great over the Tsar that his opposition tried numerous attempts to kill the monk finally succeeding by poisoning, shooting him four times and beating before finally throwing him into a river.  After all that an autopsy showed that his eventual cause of death was drowning.  While he heavily influenced the politics of the time is detractors painted Rasputin as an evil religious nut with connections to the dark arts with many of his actions flitting between reality and myth.  There is no director attached but if DiCaprio commits there is likely to be many looking to tell the story.  Before that DiCaprio will be seen in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf Of Wall Street.  Source – Deadline