Leonardo DiCaprio and his Appian Way production company are heading into the wild by snapping up the rights to an upcoming book about a wolf that charmed people around the world. It’s a fitting deal in the same week that Leo gave a speech at the UN where he championed the environment.
The book deal was only signed a few days ago, and Hollywood was quick to jump in score the film rights, with THR reporting that the likes of New Regency and Robert Zemeckis’ ImageMovers also bidding. It’s Leo who won out though.
The book in question is Nate Blakeslee’s American Wold, which ‘tells the story of O-Six, who in some circles was the world’s most famous wild animal. The female alpha wolf was collared and tracked by researchers at Yellowstone National Park, gaining a huge following from not only scientists but the public as well. She was shot by a hunter in 2012 just outside the park’s boundaries, an act that caused howls around the country (she even got an obituary in The New York Times) despite it being legal wolves were scaled back from endangered species’ lists, so there were new population control measures in place.
‘Blakeslee, a senior editor at Texas Monthly, focused on O-Six (named after the year she was born) and the impact she had on the humans around her, as well as the wolf watchers and nature aficionado who symbolized the conservation movement’s success, and the hunter, a vilified man who remains unnamed to this day.’
It doesn’t sound like it’ll be a very cheery tale, but it could make for an interesting film.