Happy Birthday Leonardo DiCaprio - Born 11/11/74

He should call up Lynch and demand he cast him in a movie. Do something with Spielberg again (not the Ulysses Grant movie). Do a play with Sam Mendes or Daldry.

DiCaprio's an actor who took ages to figure out his strengths and kept on taking roles that accentuated his weaknesses. He wanted so very much to be like his heroes (and Scorsese forerunners), De Niro and Day-Lewis, but unfortunately intensity didn't suit him in his critical transition period from boyish teen idol to adult leading man. DiCaprio's closer to his Departed co-star Jack Nicholson: a man who has a specific type of charisma/wattage/watchability, and when he's in that mode and plays toward that presence, he can work wonders. He figured out the perfect balance in 2012 with Django Unchained, and ever since, he has been on fire.

I do think he's a tad overrated in terms of his talent versus his output, but the man's command of the box office cannot be denied, and he is certainly worthy of the title of cinema's last true movie-star. I do wish he'd be more adventurous in who he works with, though. Ditch Marty and Quentin; let's see him court Herzog or Lynne Ramsay.

DiCaprio has basically been the same actor that gets attracted to the same sorts of movies ever since This Boy's Life all the way to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I can understand that some people found a lot of his early performances overrated and are only just beginning to appreciate him as an actor, but I really don't see anything about The Revenant that is more Jack Nicholson than Robert De Niro or anything about his portrayal in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood that is more self-effacing than his portrayal in Celebrity.

This theory holds even less water when you consider the fact that Nicholson was more of a hero to a young DiCaprio than Day-Lewis was, so to say that he initially modeled himself after Day-Lewis until he realized he was more akin to Nicholson seems to fly in the face of reality. This is not really that complicated. DiCaprio has repeatedly said that James Dean and River Phoenix were his heroes as an adolescent actor, and you could easily see that reflected in his choices in the 1990s, and that De Niro is his favorite actor of all time, which you can also clearly see reflected in his choices as an adult actor.

Nothing that DiCaprio has done in the 2010s is even remotely inconsistent with him modeling himself after, say, De Niro. Even his increasingly frequent forays into comedy are not something that De Niro was a stranger to. People have different sensibilities and it's not surprising that a certain actor is more appealing during certain phases of his career than others to different people, but to then surmise that an actor feels the same way about their own work as you do about their work is more than a little arrogant. I really doubt DiCaprio believes that he was a misguided actor in the 2000s that only just figured out his strengths in the 2010s. Let us not pretend to be privy to his thoughts, particularly when all of his choices throughout an extraordinary career that has lasted nearly 3 decades have been remarkably consistent with what he's always said were his ambitions as an actor: to deliver great performances in great films that stand the test of time.

I think there is a chance that his post-The Revenant break was a one-off, kind of like his post-Titanic break, and that he'll work more often from now on. Both the breaks came after especially demanding shoots that culminated in major public furore, so it isn't surprising in hindsight that he wanted to take a prolonged break. It's looking like he will do Don't Look Up and Killers of the Flower Moon in fairly quick succession, so he might be getting back to his 2000s-like work ethic where he averages one movie a year.

Epitome of a one trick pony. Amongst the overrated actors of the generation, and he's not even hot.

+Mann 

Agree with that group though (sans Chazelle).

I don't think The Devil in the White City will be made into a feature film, unfortunately. They've had multiple drafts of the script written by multiple acclaimed writers and they seem to have figured that the material and story were too dense to work in a 3-hour movie format. I've even read one of the early drafts and it just didn't work cohesively for what they were going for.

Leo could probably do this with a lot of directors but if someone tried something like that with Lynch he'd probably just hang up the phone.   He does whatever he wants. 

I got on a Lynch kick last month after I watched Twin Peaks for the first time and I'd love to see Lynch do one more feature. Getting a huge star like Leo or Pitt would be nice because then people would actually see it and given his historical stature I think he could pull down someone like that if he wanted to do another feature. But Lynch also seems like he hates movie stars. 

The Coenss would be perfect for Leo!! Eccentric characters in weird situations and the comic elements the brothers give to their leads would be right up his alley!!!

I agree, I see them staying on as producers at this point.