Leonardo DiCaprio to make Captain Planet film

Leonardo DiCaprio is set to tackle climate change with a superhero movie based on the 1990s' cartoon Captain Planet, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

It's not the first time the Oscar-winning actor has focussed on the environment. His climate change documentary Before the Flood was screened at President Barack Obama's South by South Lawn Festival earlier this month.

Now he's taking the fight to the next level with a superhero who aims to take pollution down to zero, his Appian Way Productions teaming up with Paramount to make the film.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Hollywood Reporter says talks are ongoing for the rights to the cartoon series and that the team want Jono Matt (Sons of Anarchy) and Glen Powell (Scream Queens) to write the script. DiCaprio would most likely focus on a producing role rather than acting.

Captain Planet and the Planeteers, which ran from 1990 to 1992, focused on five clean-cut young people given magical rings by Earth goddess Gaia so they could control the natural elements earth, fire, water and wind, as well as a mysterious non-element known as "heart".

United, the Planeteers could summon Captain Planet, a green superhero who helped them fight eco-villains and environmental crimes.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"content_original","fid":"102178","attributes":{"class":"media-image"}}]]

Fans are thrilled by the idea of a big-screen adaptation.

Sources suggest DiCaprio's team might take a more subversive angle than the original. The story is said take place years after the show, with the Captain a washed-up has-been who needs his sidekicks more than they need him.

The idea sounds potentially very funny, says Cheryl Eddy on Gizmodo. However: "It'll take some serious superheroics to best the classic Funny or Die Captain Planet sketch."

The clip, featuring a green-tinted, bewigged and foul-mouthed Don Cheadle, sees a deranged Captain Planet turn to the dark side and kill people by turning them into trees.