Leonardo DiCaprio Talks About Alexander the Great

Back in October 2001, both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter were abuzz with news of an Alexander the Great project. Martin Scorsese was to direct “Alexander” with his “Gangs of New York” star, Leonardo DiCaprio, ready to play Alexander the Great. Peter Buchman and Christopher McQuarrie wrote the script, for which they were reportedly paid a mid-seven figure sum, which followed Alexander as he was crowned King of Macedonia and centered on his desire to conquer the known world. Then DiCaprio got busy with Steven Spielberg and “Catch Me If You Can” and the Scorsese project was indefinitely postponed.

Shortly after that project seemed to flame out, news of Baz Luhrmann’s desire to direct an Alexander epic hit the wires. Luhrmann’s “Alexander the Great” would also star Leonardo DiCaprio (it seems every director but Oliver Stone saw DiCaprio in the role). Luhrmann was so far into the project he even put out a casting call notice for an actor to play the role of a young Alexander. But it was Oliver Stone who beat everyone to the punch. His “Alexander” with Colin Farrell in the title role, Angelina Jolie as Alexander’s mother, and Val Kilmer as Alexander’s father, King Philip, hit theaters in late November 2004.

So what’s the status of the other two potential “Alexander” movies? Leonardo DiCaprio discussed both the Baz Luhrmann project and the Martin Scorsese “Alexander” films while in Los Angeles to promote his role as Howard Hughes in Scorsese’s “The Aviator:”

How did you go from the idea of an Alexander the Great movie to doing "The Aviator?" Do you have any regrets about not being able to take on that role at this point?
I don’t have any regrets. Certainly after seeing [“The Aviator”] again last night – not all at. Alexander the Great was also – like [I've] said before – it’s one of those things where Scorsese and I just share the same tastes in similar things. We were both fascinated with Alexander the Great, as well as Howard Hughes. They were completely different time periods, different men, but similar dynamics. You know, men who keep on reaching for their ultimate goal and stop at nothing until they achieve that. It just happened to be that this script and the project was way further advanced in the development stage than the script that landed in our lap was for Alexander. We wanted to go forth. We had the intention, at one time, of doing them both but you don’t get everything you want all the time [he says with a smile].

Are you still developing an Alexander the Great movie with Baz Luhrmann?
Baz… I can’t even tell. I’ve talked to him about it. I have no idea if he’s still going to do it or not.

But there definitely was also a Scorsese "Alexander" project?
There was. A lot of people were toying with it. That’s the way it is in the business. An idea pops up and all of a sudden it’s a piranha feeding frenzy. Oliver got his off before anyone else.