Leonardo DiCaprio was offered the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Sam Raimi’s first cycle of Sony films, but he declined and the role went to his best pal Tobey Maguire. So he didn’t play Spider-Man, but it seems he might be more interested in playing the man who created him. At Wizard World Nashville, Marvel Comics chairman emeritus, Stan Lee says that he and the Academy Award winner discussed the possibility of DiCaprio portraying him in a biopic.
His manager, Max Anderson described an encounter where Dicaprio came running up to Lee’s car to express his admiration for his work. Through their conversation, they discovered that they were neighbors, which led to Lee visiting DiCaprio at his home. “He’s a big Marvel fan. In his house, he has huge posters on his walls, all over, Marvel posters. He’s great,” Lee revealed.
Lee says they discussed a project that they considered collaborating on:
“Doing a movie of my life, with him playing me, and I said, ‘I’m not sure you’re good-looking enough. We’ll test you, see how you look, see how it comes out, don’t get too excited, we’ll let you know.'”
In his 2002 caper, ‘Catch Me If You Can’ (based on a true story), DiCaprio’s character Frank Abagnale used the alias Barry Allen, the real name of the Silver Age Flash from DC Comics. But so far, DiCaprio has avoided taking any parts in superhero movies or any big-budget franchises for that matter.
More recently, it was rumored that Warner Brothers was hoping that producer Martin Scorsese could lure DiCaprio to star in the ‘Joker’ origin story he is producing, with Todd Phillips attached to direct.
Next month, ‘Professor Marston And The Wonder Women’ examines the life of the creator of Wonder Woman. That may give an indication of whether there is a thirst on the part of filmgoers to see the stories of the creators behind comics on the big screen.
And without a doubt, Stan Lee is the most famous comic book creator there is, as evidenced by the fact that even people have never picked up a single comic know who he is, thanks to his media savvy and frequent cameos in various comic book movies. If anyone warrants this treatment, it’s him.
Would you be interested in seeing a Stan Lee biopic starring DiCaprio?
Source: ComicBook.com
