NEWS > ENTERTAINMENT > DICAPRIO TALKING TO PRODUCERS OF GROWING PAINS MOVIE

DICAPRIO TALKING TO PRODUCERS OF GROWING PAINS MOVIE

July 19 2009

Hollywood, CA – For many actors their first film or television roles are a little embarrassing. Often those roles take the form of supporting work with single lines or nothing to say at all. Some make their break in commercials which inevitably come
back to haunt them when making the talk show rounds. Some though hit it out of the
park right from the beginning; Owen and Luke Wilson in the indie hit ‘Bottle Rocket’, Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton in ‘A Lion in Winter’ and Johnny Depp in the horror icon ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’.

Leonardo DiCaprio had a less than overwhelming start to his career with bit parts on short lived television shows and a starring role in ‘Critters 3’. By the time that many of those performances made it to air though the actor was already flying high with a role in one of the biggest television shows in history playing the misbegotten youth turned adoptee Luke on ‘Growing Pains’. After massive success in films such as Oscar winners ‘Titanic’ and ‘The Departed’ one could forgive him if he wanted to leave his television past where it was, but not DiCaprio who is reportedly early talks to appear in a ‘Growing Pains’ feature.

“He wants to keep it hush-hush right now but I can tell without a doubt that he is talking to the producers. For years and years he stayed away from his sitcom past but he’s started to recognize that that show played a
major role in his current success and he would like to repay the favour, especially to the fans,” said an anonymous insider. “I know the producers were sketchy on the possibility of getting him back but apparently when he heard that there was real progress on the project he contacted them. He’s even getting involved in developing the storyline and may act as a producer. He’s much more than a participant if he does indeed become involved.”

‘Growing Pains’ did spawn a television movie in 2000 but the new project is believed to be a big budget feature that will likely act as a tent pole release for Warner Brothers which will co-produce the film with Disney, owner of ABC which originally aired the show.

“From what I’ve heard they are talking north of $100 million as a budget. That’s small potatoes for a tent pole movie but is big bucks for a sitcom adaptation. True shows like ‘Transformers’ and ‘G.I. Joe’ have budgets in that range but there are a lot more explosions in those
movies than ‘Growing Pains’ will likely have and so they can justify it a little more. That’s an enormous budget for a sitcom adaptation,” said Scrape TV Entertainment analyst Tracey Temple. “That shows that studio has incredible faith in the project obviously which hopefully will be justified in the end project. Of course the real issue here isn’t so much the content, it’s whether or not DiCaprio can carry a major picture like this anymore. He has had mixed success in recent years and so that is in question. Luckily though like ‘The Departed’ this will be an ensemble piece.”

DiCaprio has had a series of films with mixed critical acclaim and box office success of late. The underwhelming success of ‘Blood Diamond’ and ‘Body of Lies’ as well as his upcoming $200 million epic with director Christopher Nolan, ‘Inception’, may be playing a role in his decision to go with a sure thing.

“Sitcom adaptations have been a mixed bag as far as success goes. Never before
though have we seen all of the major stars return and that alone could mean boffo box office, especially with someone the size of DiCaprio involved. It’s success could lead the way for a whole slew of adaptations, including the aborted ‘Who’s the Boss?’ picture,” continued Temple. “‘Family Ties’, ‘Cheers’, ‘Night Court’, ‘The Facts of Life’. With the children of the 80’s getting older and older the nostalgia factor comes more into play and that could mean huge dollars for the studios.”

It is expected that original series stars Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, Kirk Cameron, Tracy Gold, and Jeremy Miller will all return. Reportedly Ashley Johnson who played the youngest daughter ‘Chrissy’ is holding out pending DiCaprio’s involvement. Producers have also had a hard time nailing down Andrew Koenig who played ‘Boner’, who is believed to play a major role in the picture.

Samantha Dryden, Entertainment Correspondent

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