Leonardo DiCaprio is attached to star in ATARI, a film about the godfather of the video game industry, Nolan Bushnell, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
Writers Brian Heckner and Craig Sherman sold Paramount the story on Friday. DiCaprio's Appian Way shingle is producing; filmmakers hope the movie will incorporate elements from MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON and TUCKER.
Bushnell was an engineering student, puzzle-lover and game -- chess, Go, early computer games -- enthusiast. He went from fixing broken pinball machines to launching video game manufacturer in the early 1970s. Its first product was PONG, a game that transfixed kids across the country and led to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of video game sales. Bushnell sold the company to Warner Communications (now Time Warner) for $28 million in 1977.
Since then, Bushnell has started other technical ventures and also created Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theaters.
The Oscar-nominated DiCaprio has portrayed real-life personalities before: author Tobias Wolff (THIS BOY'S LIFE), poets Jim Carroll (THE BASKETBALL DIARIES) and Arthur Rimbaud (TOTAL ECLIPSE), master counterfeiter Frank Abagnale Jr. (CATCH ME IF YOU CAN) and aviator-recluse Howard Hughes (THE AVIATOR).
He is also attached to films in development about flashy Wall Street felon Jordan Belfort and JAMES BOND creator Ian Fleming.
