Steven Spielberg plotting Ulysses S. Grant biopic with Leonardo DiCaprio

Steven Spielberg could be set to make a second biopic movie about a former US president.

According to reports, he’s in talks with Lionsgate to come on board a movie about Ulysses S. Grant, the civil war hero and the 18th president of the United States.

The project is being masterminded by Leonardo DiCaprio, via his production company Appian Way, and is based on Ron Chernow’s 2017 biography Grant.

Grant was a commanding general in the army before becoming president, serving during the Civil War and helping the Union to victory over the confederates under President Abraham Lincoln.

He won decisive battles at Shiloh and at Vicksburg in 1863, after which he led the combined Union armies, and is hailed as one of the great military strategists.

Grant followed 17th president Andrew Johnson, and while in office worked to crush the final vestiges of slavery, as well as stabilising the post-war economy.

Spielberg has form in the presidential biopic, of course.

His 2012 movie Lincoln scored a third Best Actor Oscar for his star Daniel Day-Lewis, and a Best Director nomination for Spielberg.

Spielberg has a few other irons in the fire at the moment too, including the forthcoming fifth movie in the Indiana Jones series, and a new screen adaptation of West Side Story.

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