Leonardo DiCaprio in talks to star in Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Now here's an interesting potential pairing. Variety has reported that Leonardo DiCaprio (ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD) is in negotiations to star in Guillermo del Toro's NIGHTMARE ALLEY, which will serve as the follow-up to his Oscar-winning THE SHAPE OF WATER.

The film will be based upon the William Lindsey Gresham novel of the same name, but this isn't the first time that "Nightmare Alley" has made it to the big-screen. Tyrone Power starred in a 1947 adaptation as "an ambitious young con-man who hooks up with a female psychiatrist who is even more corrupt than he is. At first, they enjoy success fleecing people with their mentalist act, but then she turns the table on him, out-manipulating the manipulator." Guillermo del Toro will direct NIGHTMARE ALLEY from a script which he co-wrote with Kim Morgan and the plan is for production to get underway this fall. Now, I know that del Toro is somewhat infamous for announcing projects which never see the light of day, but I've got my fingers crossed for this one. A noir-style Guillermo del Toro film starring Leonardo DiCaprio? Yes please.

A synopsis of "Nightmare Alley" via Amazon:

Nightmare Alley begins with an extraordinary description of a freak-show geek—alcoholic and abject and the object of the voyeuristic crowd’s gleeful disgust and derision—going about his work at a county fair. Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a man could fall so low. There’s no way in hell, he vows, that anything like that will ever happen to him.

And since Stan is clever and ambitious and not without a useful streak of ruthlessness, soon enough he’s going places. Onstage he plays the mentalist with a cute bimbo (before long his harried wife), then he graduates to full-blown spiritualist, catering to the needs of the rich and gullible in their well-upholstered homes. It looks like the world is Stan’s for the taking. At least for now.

Leonardo DiCaprio will next be seen in Quentin Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, which is slated to hit theaters on July 26, 2019.