Well it seems confirmed – by Deadline.com at least – that Leo DiCaprio will be playing FBI co-founder and former head honcho J Edgar Hoover in Clint Eastwood’s untitled biopic from the pen of gay writer Dustin Lance Black (that’s a lot of Oscar statuettes to shake a stick at).

Plot details are non exist so far, but the casting of Leo would suggest a focus on the young Hoov back in the 1930s as he battles to set up a crime fighting agency powerful enough to take on some iconic gangsters of the time. Unless of course they use some dodgy make-up or CGI to ‘age’ him.

It’s interesting because with Hoover being such a complex and mysterious figure with a long political history you could portray him in any number of ways and if Lance Black’s script does focus on the setting up of the FBI then Hoover could conceivably be painted as a heroic figure, taking on the mob. And as Hoover’s cross-dressing was rumoured later in his life, we might be cheated the sight of Leo in a dress.

This should be great, but 2011 will tell if Universal made a huge mistake passing this one over. Warner Bros. seem happy with the script, though, and are fast tracking the project. We now need the same to happen with Matt Damon’s long-rumoured turn as Liberace.