DiCaprio to Play Atari…Creator

Leonardo DiCaprio aims to be the man who brought us Pac-Man.

Variety reports that Leonardo DiCaprio has picked up another project for his Appian Way production company. It seems like Leo has signed up for a lot of things lately and I don’t know when he’s going to do them all. Nevertheless, in this one he is set to play Nolan Bushnell.

What?!! You don’t know who Nolan Bushnell is? Okay, I didn’t either. As it turns out, Mr. Bushnell is one of the founders of Atari, along with Ted Dabney. The two founded the company in 1972 and pioneered the video arcade game and home video game industries. Yes. These are the men who brought you Pong.

Brian Hecker (Bart Got a Room) and Craig Sherman wrote the script that charmed our man Leo. Apparently the Bushnell bio has been a hot topic for a while in Hollywood but Hecker and Sherman were the ones who got him to spill the whole bloody story. I’m interested in the fact that this story was such a coveted property. As I said, I don’t know much about Bushnell, but I just took a look at his bio on the oh so reliable Wikipedia and it seems like he had a fairly straightforward rise through the business world. No personal tragedies (nor do I wish any on you, Nolan), no “everyone thinks you’re nuts” type of thing, no “I’ve lost everything” moments. So I’ve got to think that either there’s something more there or Hecker and Sherman are so persuasive that I desperately need to get them to take care of a few things for me.