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Leonardo DiCaprio as Leonardo Da Vinci: That's a biopic I'd love to see


Reading a review of Walter Isaacson’s Leonardo Da Vinci by Emily at As the Crowe Reads and Flies, I was reminded that Paramount picked up the biography this past summer as a star vehicle for that other famous Leonardo. Paramount paid a pretty penny for it too, reportedly in the 7 figures. 

Leonardo as Leonardo sounds a little like kismet. According to Deadline, ‘‘legend has it that Leonardo DiCaprio was so named because his pregnant mother was looking at a Leonardo da Vinci painting in a museum in Italy when the future star kicked for the first time.’’ 




While I’d love to see DiCaprio as Da Vinci, I’ve checked Leo’s imdb and for now the actor seems all tied up with The Black Hand (based on the book by  Stephen Talty) and Killers of the Flower Moon (based on the book by David Grann) both in preproduction, along with the announced Roosevelt. I’ll keep you posted if I hear about some movement afoot.


Self portrait by Leonardo Da Vinci

The book may have to suffice for now but if art makes your little heart flutter as wildly as the furrow in DiCaprio’s brow does (resist the Botox, Leo!), that’s not so bad.




Emily’s Review 


From what Emily says, the book should fill the gap nicely.
My Simon & Schuster rep gifted me with the audio book for my birthday late last fall, which was ideal now that I have a long enough commute to make listening to audio books worthwhile. It’s read by actor Alfred Molina, who does a great job, and the audio version comes with a separate CD full of PDFs of the art described in the book (presumably the digital audio also comes with downloadable images).  However, I was only two discs into the 17-disc set before I realized that I would also want the physical book, and I was fortunate that Simon & Schuster obliged by by sending me one of those, too. The book is beautiful, printed on heavy paper with full color plates.
I’ve never read Isaacson before, so I don’t know if this is a signature style or a one-off, but rather than employing a chronologically linear narrative, he employs a style that I’d call vignette-like.  This means that occasionally the narrative circles back to an earlier period of history, but with a subject who is as far removed from our time as Leonardo is, this makes sense to me.
Did I have much of an impression about Leonardo before tackling this book?  Not a big one. I took a survey of western heritage class in college that gave an overview of his art and I think it was a class in high school where I learned more about his bent for science and engineering, but other than a general impression that the term “Renaissance Man” might have been first used with him in mind, I couldn’t tell you a lot about the guy. My only personal experience was on a college choir trip to Milan, where we were able to view his fresco of The Last Supper in small groups.
You can read the rest of Emily's review at As the Crowe Flies (and Reads)
Thanks for letting me share your review Emily!