The out-of-left-field movie idea of the week comes from the unlikely team of Leonardo DiCaprio and Michael Bay. The project, which the two will only producing, will be about the Rwandan national biking team.
DiCaprio and Bay are in talks with Paramount, where they hope to make the film under their Appian Way and Bay Films shingles. The project was first confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter.
Neither of them are expected to fill their usual roles. DiCaprio won’t star and Bay is not going to direct. Instead, the director will be Orlando von Einsiedel, who helmed DiCaprio’s Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary Virunga.
The film will tell the story of Jacques “Jock” Boyer, an American who raced in the Tour de France. He is a skilled cyclist, winning several races before he retired at age 32. But then a streak of horrible events (including an affair with a teen) lead to his downfall. He sought redemption in Rwanda, helping a group of boys put together a biking team. One member of the team even competed in the 2012 London Olympics.
There are no writers or stars attached.
As a producer, DiCaprio is set to make more documentaries with Netflix. He just filmed Alejandro G. Inarritu’s The Revenant and is hoping to star in The Crowded Room.
Bay is increasingly trying to put his days of explosions behind him and is currently working on 13 Hours, a film about the 2012 Benghazi attack. Still, he is helping out Paramount on more Transformers project.
image courtesy of INFphoto.com