Mega movie star Leonardo DiCaprio is set to play America's 28th president, Woodrow Wilson, in a new film, a prominent celebrity gossip magazine reported on Tuesday.
E! News said a source confirmed to them that DiCaprio, 38, will star in and produce the biopic about the Democratic president. It was not immediately clear when it is slated to hit theaters.
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio arrives for a screening of "The Great Gatsby" on May 15, 2013 at the Cannes Film Festival (Getty Images)
Wilson has been skewered by critics for a number of reasons -- Glenn Beck has hammered him as a eugenicist "progressive" and one of the worst presidents in American history.
Former Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano authored a book alleging Wilson was one of two presidents who "destroyed Constitutional freedom" and reportedly said Wilson was "awesome the way Hitler was."
"With lessons rooted in history, Judge Napolitano shows the intellectually arrogant, anti-personal freedom, even racist progressive philosophy driving these men to poison the American system of government," says the description of his book, "Theodore and Woodrow," on Amazon
Wilson led America through World War I, signed into law the establishment of the Federal Reserve Bank and famously failed at an attempt to create an intergovernmental organization called the League of Nations, a precursor to the United Nations.
E! News noted there are also many other "notable moments ripe for dramatization."
"Wilson was the last president to marry in the White House when he tied the knot in 1915 with Edith Galt, and during his final two years in office, he suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed, a condition which was kept hidden from the public until his term was over," the celebratory gossip website pointed out.
DiCaprio will produce the film through his Appian Way Productions studio, E! News added.
Deadline previously reported Monday that Warner Bros had acquired "Wilson," a recently published biography of the 28th president.
The biography, authored by A. Scott Berg, reportedly attempts to humanize Wilson, according to Deadline.
(H/T: The Guardian)
This post has been updated.
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