Leonardo DiCaprio Will Binge-Drink Heavily in His Next Movie Role
On Sunday night at the 93rd Annual Academy Awards, Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’s film Another Round won the award for Best International Film. But in the two weeks leading up to his Oscar win, Vinterberg’s reps were quietly engaged in an auction to sell the English-language remake rights to the movie. And by Monday morning, it was announced that Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson’s production company Appian Way had won the rights at auction. Another Round will go into development with DiCaprio in the movie’s lead role (played by Mads Mikkelsen in the original), who is one of four middle-aged teachers experiencing life crises that they decide to address by drinking heavily every day.
According to a report from Deadline, behind-the-scenes players like a director or a screenwriter have not been chosen for the remake just yet. Although Vinterberg stated he wouldn’t be involved in the English-language version, he’s directed films in English before, including Far From the Madding Crowd.
But fans of the original are a bit wary of the English remake, especially with DiCaprio replacing Mikkelsen, who is quite capable of acting in English.
“I don’t know if Mads would do such a thing,” Vinterberg told IndieWire. “My first thought would be to make a different interpretation. Asking the same actor to do a different interpretation could be a little bit confusing.” He also seems glad that interpretation is now up to DiCaprio. “Now, it’s in the hands of the finest actor you can get and besides being a brilliant actor, he’s made very intelligent choices throughout his career. I feel there’s a lot of integrity in the choices he’s made. I’m full of hope and curiosity about what they’re up to.”
DiCaprio already has his hands full in terms of cinematic projects for 2021—his docket includes Killers of the Flower Moon, which is based on the book of the same name by David Grann, and Don’t Look Up on deck. The latter, a satire that will debut on Netflix, also stars Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Timothée Chalamet, and even Ariana Grande—and started filming in Boston as of January. He’s also slated to make his return to television. DiCaprio got his start on screen in the 1990s with appearances on Growing Pains and Parenthood and, very briefly, Roseanne and The New Lassie. It was announced in 2019 that he’ll star in a made-for-television adaptation of Erik Larson’s true-crime book The Devil in the White City, to be directed by Martin Scorsese—release date TBD.
