Following the success of 2014 documentary “Virunga,” Leonardo DiCaprio is once again teaming up with Netflix – this time, for a feature adaption of the Oscar-nominated film (which was released on the streamer), Deadline reported Tuesday.
Barry Jenkins, the Oscar-winning director of 2018 best picture “Moonlight,” will write the adaptation. Orlando von Einsiedel, who wrote and directed “Virunga,” is attached to executive produce.
DiCaprio will produce the new project alongside Jennifer Davisson and Phillip Watson, partners at his Appian Way production company, as well as Oscar-winner Joanna Natasegara for London-based Violet Films.
In addition to its Academy Award nomination, “Virunga” won a Peabody Award and received critical acclaim on the festival circuit. The story follows a team of rangers who risk their lives to protect Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, home of the world’s last mountain gorillas.
Jenkins also currently has an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s bestselling novel “The Underground Railroad” in the works at Amazon and is directing Fox Searchlight’s biopic about Alvin Ailey, an influential 20th-century Black choreographer.