> > I heard something from the rumor mill yesterday: supposedly, Lucas & Co. are hoping to cast Leonardo DiCaprio as the teenage Anakin Skywalker for Star Wars Episode II.
>
> Not true. Lucas wants to cast someone his age, so naturally his name makes the list, but that's as far as it goes so far. Anything's possible, I suppose, but I highly doubt he'd be cast. It's not hard to see how that particular rumor got started. At the same time, although face-recognition surely does count against him, he *is* a good actor. People forget that he had a highly respected career before "Titanic" blinded the masses to anything but his newfound public image.
>
> Personally, I'm hoping a relative unknown is cast.

Well, I've just now come across a message board literally packed with posts from all sides of the "issue", and having read through some pro-Leo posts, I'm a little more warm to the idea of casting him as Anakin. Evidently, he's over six feet tall and could bulk up sufficiently to fill the role of an intimidating Sith-Lord-to-be. And as you've pointed out, he's a good actor and could certainly carry the part. A good makeup and hair job could do wonders for helping him into the role (or rather, for helping audiences accept him in the role). But like you, I'm still hoping for someone fairly unknown. Ah, well--plenty of time to sit back and speculate...

Iss "how 'bout Macaulay Culkin?" achar