Leonardo DiCaprio has signed on to produce and star in an upcoming, still-untitled biopic about Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, the rock pioneer who produced landmark records by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and many more.
Mick Jagger will also serve as a producer on the Paramount Pictures film, based on the Peter Guralnicks book Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock N Roll. According to Deadline, Jagger will hold a similar role in helping to foster the Phillips story to the silver screen as the Rolling Stones singer played on the HBO music drama Vinyl.
Phillips founded the Memphis-based Sun Records in 1952, setting up the famed Sun Studio, where Presley laid down his earliest recordings, including first single Thats All Right, considered one of the earliest rock n roll releases.
In addition to his string of hits on the Sun label, Phillips also oversaw the legendary and impromptu Million Dollar Quartet session in December 1956, when Presley, Cash, Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis performed together. Phillips, who also championed for integration in the 1950s, died in 2003.
While DiCaprios Appian Way secured the rights to Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock N Roll, Variety reports that the role of the Sun Records honcho likely wont be the actors first big screen role since his Oscar-winning turn in The Revenant.
While DiCaprio is still searching for the right post-Best Actor cinematic role hes reportedly still circling his long-in-the-works adaptation of The Devil in the White City the actor has remained busy on the production side of the industry, working on the documentaries Before the Flood, a climate change film featuring music by Trent Reznor, and The Ivory Race, Netflixs look at the illegal ivory trade.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that DiCaprio was also spearheading a big screen reboot of the environmental cartoon Captain Planet.