Leonardo DiCaprio to play "mad monk" Rasputin

Hot on the heels of playing the world's most charming man, Jay Gatsby, Leonardo DiCaprio is about to become a monk.

Warner Bros. is developing a Rasputin movie for him at the actor’s studio-based Appian Way along with Kevin McCormick’s Langley Park Pictures.

The studio acquired a pitch from 'American Sniper' writer Jason Hall, who will script the story of the influential Russian mystic, Grigori Rasputin, who advised the ruling Russian Imperial family between 1907 and his death in 1916.

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Rasputin was invited by Tsar Nicholas II to serve as a medical advisor to his haemophiliac son Alexei. Said to have manipulated the throne behind the scenes, Rasputin's exploits are the stuff of legend, rumoured to tie into mysticism and the dark arts.

His name has become synonymous with the secretive abuse of power -  and he is said to have been able to bed women and evade violent rivals with ease until his violent death.

His actions are also blamed for the fall of the Romanov Dynasty, which was destroyed only months after his death during the dual revolutionary phases of 1917 that led to Bolshevik rule.

Actors who have played Rasputin in the past include Christopher Lee, Tom Baker, Robert Powell, Alan Rickman and Gérard Depardieu. 'Hellboy ' fans will also recall the mad monk's appearance in that franchise's first offering.

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According to the 'Deadline' website, DiCaprio was attracted by Hall’s approach to the figure, featuring “the complicated elements of a child who lost the better part of himself when his brother died, and was capable of kindness but also a ruthlessness".

Producers will be McCormick, Appian Way partner Jennifer Davisson Killoran and Peter Morgan.

DiCaprio will be seen next in Martin Scorsese’s 'The Wolf Of Wall Street,' starring as stockbroker Jordan Belfort. Paramount releasing the film on 15 November.