Oscar winner Steven Spielberg will direct Titanic heart-throb Leonardo DiCaprio in the the long-awaited screen adaptation of Catch Me If You Can, famed con man Frank Abagnale’s best-selling autobiography. The tome chronicles the criminal’s adventures over two years in which he successfully impersonated a doctor, an airline pilot and a professor while cashing $6 million in fraudulent checks worldwide and landing on the FBI’s Most Wanted List.
Leo had signed on to the project last July, but production on the film was sidelined when his shooting on Martin Scorsese’s Gangs Of New York fell behind schedule. With the Catch Me’s start date in jeopardy, a game of directors' musical chairs ensued. Gore Verbinski of The Mexican fame was forced to drop out and a bevy of A-list talent flirted with the project, including Oscar winner Cameron Crowe and Chocolat’s Lasse Hallstrom.
“Steven has been a big fan of Catch Me since the first time he read the draft last year,” says DreamWorks production chief Walter Parkes. “His commitments to AI and Minority Report precluded his considering it then.”
But with production having just ended on Minority Report, a science fiction project starring Tom Cruise and Irish upstart Colin Farrell, Steven has set his sights on Catch Me and aims to start lensing in January.
The Saving Private Ryan director had toyed with the idea of another adaptation, Memoirs Of A Geisha, but that project is on hold.
James Gandolfini of The Sopranos was set to co-star with Leo in Catch Me, but prior commitments will keep him from joining the cast. There has been no word on his replacement.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
