Leonardo DiCaprio circling Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley

HOLLYWOOD, CA - MARCH 02: Actor Leonardo DiCaprio arrives at the 86th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on March 2, 2014 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Gregg DeGuire/WireImage) LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 15: Director/writer/producer Guillermo Del Toro attends the premiere of Fox Searchlight Pictures' 'The Shape Of Water' at the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences on November 15, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Barry King/Getty Images)
Photo: Gregg DeGuire/WireImage; Barry King/Getty Images

Leonardo DiCaprio is in talks to star in Nightmare Alley, the new film from director Guillermo del Toro, EW has confirmed. The movie is based on the 1946 novel by William Lindsay Gresham about a carnival worker-turned-con man. The film was previous adapted into a 1947 movie starring Tyrone Power.

Del Toro is writing the script for the new film with Kim Morgan. The Fox Searchlight project marks Del Toro’s first movie since The Shape of Water, which won Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture.

DiCaprio will next be seen playing an actor in director Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (out July 26), alongside Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, and Al Pacino, among others. Variety first reported his potential involvement in Nightmare Alley.

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