Leonardo DiCaprio is in talks to step into the role of one of the most famous stunt performers in history and play Evel Knievel in an upcoming movie.
What do we know about the Evel Knievel movie?
According to a report in the latest edition of the Puck newsletter, Matthew Belloni noted that DiCaprio’s manager Rick Yorn has been “quietly negotiating” for his client to star in an upcoming Evel Knievel biopic from La La Land director Damien Chazelle, which would apparently center around Knievel’s infamous Snake River jump, which saw Knievel attempt to jump across Idaho’s Snake River Canyon using a rocket-powered motorcycle in 1974.
The Puck report mentions that Martin Scorsese — who Yorn also represents — was at one point attached to direct the project, but now Chazelle is on board, with a script written by Terence Winter that Chazelle is revising. The plan, according to the report, is for the movie to enter production sometime this summer.
Born in 1938, Knievel (real name Robert Craig Knievel) was a stunt performer and entertainer best known for performing ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps across a variety of objects. Throughout the 1970s, Knievel was a staple in American culture. He appeared on a variety of TV shows and toys were mass-produced. Knievel died in 2007 at the age of 69 due to issues stemming from a diabetes diagnosis.
The movie would present yet another star-studded role for DiCaprio. After starring in Scorsese’s 2023 Killers of the Flower Moon, DiCaprio is set to star in the upcoming Paul Thomas Anderson movie One Battle After Another, which releases later this year. He’s also been rumored to star in an upcoming Martin Scorsese project alongside Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt.
(Source: Puck)
