Leonardo DiCaprio is lining himself up for what could prove a very intriguing project, as he’s attached to star in Rasputin, based on a pitch from writer Jason Dean Hall that Warner Bros. has just picked up, according to Deadline.
The film will be about the mystical Russian monk who was embraced by the Imperial Family as a medical adviser for their haemophiliac son, Tsarevich Alexei. Rasputin managed to gain considerable influence within the family, so much so that the family’s rivals tried to kill Rasputin several times before his legendary death in 1916.
There have been movies made about Rasputin before, but writer Jason Dean Hall reportedly unearthed new details about the man, which give him more ‘psychological depth’. He’s certainly an interesting figure, with come seeing him as a power-mad charlatan, while other have painted him as a good man who fell foul on the intrigues of the Russian court.
Jennifer Davisson Killoran is producing for Leonardo DiCaprio’s company Appian Way, alongside Langley Park’s Kevin McCormick and Peter Morgan. There’s no news on when the film might shoot.
There was nothing ‘mad’ about Rasputin. We know he was a healer, a champion of the underdog and downtrodden, and he was anti-war. He was especially horrified at the ethnic cleansing (pogroms) conducted by the military. It was a time when anti-Semitism was government policy, as evidenced by the laws restricting Jews to live in a certain area (The Pale of Settlement), barring them from educations and many occupations. The worst were the raids wherein entire towns of Jews were tortured and slaughtered.
To be against war (this was during WW I) and to advocate equal rights for Jews (who were all considered spies and thieves) were stances that were considered treasonous by society. Even worse, Rasputin had many progressive ideas for economic and social reform that threatened the nobility.
Read “RASPUTIN: The Memoirs of His Secretary” by Aron Simanovitch, just translated into English and annotated for historical accuracy. Rasputin was a wild guy, but not the monster the aristocracy tried to depict him as. The demonic myth is based on the rumors the nobles spread to discredit him.