Jared Leto to play Andy Warhol in biopic that's not the least bit of a stretch
LOS ANGELES -- After playing the Joker in Suicide Squad, Oscar winner Jared Leto is set to tackle another pop culture icon, as he has signed on to play Andy Warhol in an upcoming biopic titled Warhol, Mashable has confirmed.
Leto is teaming with Michael De Luca (Fifty Shades of Grey) to produce the movie, which will be written by Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter. Leto and De Luca have already acquired the rights to Victor Bockris' 1989 book Warhol: The Biography, which will serve as the basis of Winter's script.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, which broke the Warhol news, the project will be aimed at mainstream audiences rather than the arthouse crowd.
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Best known for turning Campbell's soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles into high art, Warhol also founded an art studio called The Factory that created music and films in the 1960s. The New York socialite was a regular at Studio 54 and he worked closely with artists ranging from the Velvet Underground to Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Warhol died in his sleep in 1987 while he was recovering from routine gallbladder surgery. His family sued the hospital for medical malpractice and eventually settled for an undisclosed sum of money.
Leto has played gay characters before, having won an Oscar for his turn as an AIDS patient in Dallas Buyers Club. He's currently filming the Blade Runner sequel with Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford.
De Luca has had success making movies about real people, such as Moneyball, Captain Phillips and The Social Network. The same can be said for Winter, who earned an Oscar nomination for writing The Wolf of Wall Street.
