Lenfilm studio ready for Leonardo DiCaprio to play Lenin

St Petersburg-based studio Lenfilm has announced its readiness to shoot Leonardo DiCaprio in the role of Vladimir Lenin.

“[...] DiCaprio is often compared with Lenin in his youth. We have the necessary scenery and props to recreate the revolutionary era,” Lenfilm’s press secretary Valery Karpov told Radio Baltika.

This news comes soon after the Hollywood star expressed his desire to play Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Lenin or Grigori Rasputin in a movie during an interview with German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

“Putin would be very, very, very interesting. I would like to play him,” DiCaprio stated.

Deputy chairman of the Duma Committee for Culture, Vladimir Bortko, has also announced that he would like to direct any such film featuring DiCaprio.

“DiCaprio is a good artist. He can play whatever he wants to play. I would shoot him with pleasure if he invited me as a director. Which project would be best depends on the script,” Mr Bortko stated.

The actor’s enthusiasm for Soviet films and film posters, as well as the possibility of him gaining Russian citizenship, has also been widely reported in the Russian press.

DiCaprio’s maternal grandmother was born in Perm, close to the Ural mountains in Russia, and was able to speak Russian. He is reported to have hit it off with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who called the actor a “real man” for making the trip to a summit on the future of tigers in St Petersburg in 2010, despite safety scares during his journey to Russia.

Source: Lenta (in Russian)