Leonardo DiCaprio to Produce Movie on Volkswagen Emissions Scandal

Is that Oscar-bait we smell? 

Leonardo DiCaprio will produce Paramount’s upcoming film on the 2015 Volkswagen emissions scandal, Variety reports.


While there’s no director or actors attached to the film, Variety reports that DiCaprio produce the feature with Jennifer Davisson under the duo’s Appian Way banner, the same production house that put together DiCaprio’s highly-anticipated The Revenant. 


While the scandal — which alleges Volkswagen illegally tampered with software so their clean diesel cars could pass emissions tests and meet EPA standards — has only rocked the car giant in recent weeks, Paramount quickly snatched up the film rights to an upcoming book on the affair by New York Times reporter Jack Ewing for a reported six figures. 


“Hollywood studios have been keen to seize on business scandals and have been competing aggressively for book rights,” Bloomberg notes. “Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. next year will release Deepwater Horizon, a story about the BP Plc offshore oil platform that exploded in 2010. The film stars Mark Wahlberg. Paramount plans to release The Big Short, a film based Michael Lewis’s book about the collapse of the housing market.”


It’s unclear if DiCaprio will play a role in the film, but Leo’s been on fire lately, both with The Revenant and his upcoming collaboration with Martin Scorsese on “America’s first serial killer.” And with that Oscar statuette still eluding his grasp, we suspect that if he does choose to step onto the stage, it won’t be as Volkwagen’s version of Jordan Belfort.