All of Us Strangers' director Andrew Haigh has been tapped by Universal Pictures to write and direct a biopic of the life of Leonardo da Vinci, Deadline reported.
The film will be based on Walter Isaacson's 2017 biography of arguably the world's most famous polymath. The book takes from thousands of pages from the da Vinci's notebooks as well as new discoveries about the artist's life and work. The biography also aims to connect the art to the science of Leonardo's genius.
Christopher Hampton previously wrote a draft of the script. Ryan Jones, Universal's SVP of Production, will be responsible for the project for the studio.
Haigh goes High Renaissance
Haigh's queer romantic fantasy movie All of Us Strangers, released last year, starring Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal was nominated for six BAFTAs and three Independent Spirit Awards. The film was based on the 1987 Japanese novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada.
The director broke out with his 2011 film Weekend. His directing credits include 2017's Lean on Pete and 2015′ 45 Years. Haigh also wrote, directed and executive produced HBO's Looking, which ran for two seasons and directed the 2021 BBC and AMC series The North Water.
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was considered one of the most famous names of the High Renaissance. He was painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor and architect. Da Vinci was originally famous for his paintings, but he has also become known for his notebooks. These referenced various subjects such as anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting and paleontology.
Da Vinci was widely regarded as the embodiment of the Renaissance humanist ideal. His reputation is only matched by the younger Michelangelo. Coincidentally, both artists' names were used for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The other two are painter and architect Raphael and the sculptor Donatello.
Leonardo da Vinci in popular culture
Not much is known about the artist's personal life. Italian Renaissance painter Vasari described him as one with “great physical beauty” and “infinite grace. His friends spoke about his love for animals, his vegetarianism and his habit of buying caged birds in order to release them.
There have been five films about the life of the polymath: the 1919 silent film Leonardo da Vinci, the live-action 1971 movie The Life of Leonardo da Vinci, the 1996 animated film, the 2018 animated Leo da Vinci: Mission Mona Lisa and the 2023 stop-motion animated film The Inventor.
However, one of the most famous depictions of the artist on film is the 1998 movie Ever After starring Drew Barrymore, with da Vinci ostensibly playing the role of Barrymore's fairy godmother. In the movie, it was Leonardo who designed the wings she wore when she attended the party.
Two of da Vinci's most famous masterpieces are the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. The most famous of his drawings is the Vitruvian Man. His Codex Leicester, a collection of his scientific writings, was sold in auction in 1984 to Bill Gates for $30.8 million, the most expensive manuscript ever sold at the time.
This project will be Universal's second Isaacson adaptation. The studio previously adapted the author's 2011 biography Steve Jobs. The 2015 movie bearing the same title had the script adapted by Aaron Sorkin, directed by Danny Boyle and starred Michael Fassbender as the titular character.
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