Leo gets a Killer role

Erik Larson’s non-fiction novel, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness At The Fair That Changed America, has been optioned by Leonardo DiCaprio and his Appian Way production company. The story tells the true tale of 19^th century Chicago serial killer Dr. HH Holmes (played by Leo) – who was rumored to have killed 200 people, numbers that put Ted Bundy, Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer to shame. Will this finally be the roll that nabs Leo the Oscar?

He’s been nominated three times before – twice for Best Actor (The Aviator and Blood Diamond) and once for Best Supporting Actor (in a chilling performance as a young mentally challenged boy alongside Johnny Depp in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?). Since Titanic came out in 1997, everyone’s been saying how good Leo is and how he deserves one. But he’s never had that one, juicy roll he can really sink his teeth into – something in the vein of Anthony Hopkins’ Dr. Hannibal Lecter in 1991’s The Silence of the Lamb (a roll Hopkins literally and figuratively sunk his teeth into) which won him the Oscar.

With a good director behind the camera, this project has a lot of Oscar potential for Leo. He’s made some good movies this year, but his roles are starting to look the same – especially with his new, go-to squinty-eyed facial expression, that he incessantly used in both Shutter Island and Inception this year. This one facial expression acting style is what I like to call the Mark Wahlbergization of contemporary acting (in Wahlberg’s case, the expression is unbridled confusion). Leo’s role as a cunning serial killer lends itself to a multitude of emotions, let’s see if he can use his range and ride this project all the way to Oscar town.