14 DAY TRIAL // Leonardo DiCaprio has been snubbed so many times for an Oscar that it led to the creation of one of the most hilarious Internet memes. Last year, he lost Best Actor to Matthew McConaughey, and again became the talk of the town because, apparently, the Academy was bent on keeping him locked in the house of recognized talent.
Or so his fans believed.
Hopefully, that will change soon, because he’s about to start working on a movie in which he’ll play a man who has no less than 24 different personalities. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Academy.
New challenging role for Leo
The film is called “The Crowded Room” and is based on a book by Daniel Keyes, depicting the real-life story of a man named Billy Milligan. Milligan is the first to have used the insanity plea in his defense, claiming that some of his personalities committed the crimes he was accused of - and of which he had no knowledge.
Milligan was accused of robbing and of raping 3 women in Ohio in the ‘70s. His attorneys told the jury that separate personalities had committed the crimes, so Milligan couldn’t be held accountable for them, because he had no memory of it ever happening.
He was acquitted.
“Milligan’s various personalities included Adalana, a lesbian taking responsibility for the rapes; Ragen, a Yugoslavian communist who admitted to the robbery; and Arthur, an uptight Englishman,” The Hollywood Reporter says.
Project is in pre-production
DiCaprio has been trying to make this movie for about 20 years: half of this time, the project was in limbo over at New Regency, which is now developing it with the actor’s Appian Way production company.
The script is being written by Jason Smilovic and Todd Katzberg, with the former’s credits including “Lucky Number Slevin” and “Arms and the Dudes.”
“The Crowded Room” doesn’t have a release date yet, but don’t hold your breath for it just yet: DiCaprio is now shooting “The Revenant” and will get to work on “Mean Business on North Ganson Street” next, so chances are he’ll start work on this at the end of next year at the earliest.
Still, what we’ve heard of it so far sounds very promising - promising enough to get movie bloggers and celebrity pundits to say that the Academy will have no choice but to give the man his long overdue Oscar.
After all, DiCaprio does an astounding job when he’s playing a single role in a movie; can you imagine how amazing he’ll be when he plays more than one? One Best Actor Oscar already has his name on it.
