Leonardo DiCaprio tapped for J Edgar Hoover biopic

He was one of the most notorious figures of postwar America, a behind-the-scenes puppet master revered by some and feared by many. Now the late FBI boss J Edgar Hoover looks set to be brought to the big screen – in the form of Leonardo DiCaprio. The Shutter Island star is reportedly in negotiations to star in a Hoover biopic directed by Clint Eastwood. The film would chart Hoover's rise to power, spotlighting his founding of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which he ran right through to his death in 1972. During his 50s and 60s heyday, Hoover was a pivotal and polarising presence within the US political landscape. Unremitting in his pursuit of "subversives", he was known for harassing political activists and wire-tapping public figures. Rumours abound that he was also a closet homosexual and a secret cross-dresser. Hoover's 36-year tenure as the director of the FBI can in part be put down to wariness on the part of various presidents, who feared the consequences of upsetting him. While privately disapproving of Hoover's methods, president Lyndon Johnson is said to have concluded that "it was better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside pissing in". The FBI boss has been played by several actors in the past, from Ernest Borgnine and Bob Hoskins through to Billy Crudup, who took a supporting slot as a young Hoover in last year's Public Enemies. Eastwood's Hoover biopic has been scripted by Dustin Lance Black, the Oscar-winning writer of Milk, and will be produced by Brian Grazer. The Hollywood Reporter suggests that the picture will be managed by Eastwood's own Malpaso production house, which is based at Warner Bros. Shooting is scheduled to begin later this year. Eastwood is currently putting the finishing touches to Hereafter, a supernatural thriller starring Matt Damon and Bryce Dallas Howard, while DiCaprio recently completed work on Christopher Nolan's Inception. The actor starred as Howard Hughes – another shadowy antihero of 20th-century America – in Martin Scorsese's 2004 drama The Aviator.