LEONARDO DICAPRIO is in talks to star in Guillermo del Toro’s “Nightmare Alley” remake. The project will reteam the director with his “Shape of Water” studio, Fox Searchlight, which has acquired worldwide distribution rights.

“Nightmare Alley” will be based on the novel by William Lindsay Gresham, which was adapted in 1947 into a Fox feature that starred Tyrone Power and Joan Blondel. The story centers on an ambitious con man who hooks up with a female psychiatrist for a mentalist routine, but eventually she turns the tables on him.

Del Toro wrote the new script with Kim Morgan, and will produce with J. Miles Dale. The film is being financed by del Toro and Dale, with TSG Entertainment.

DiCaprio was last onscreen in 2015 with Alejandro G. Inarritu’s “The Revenant,” which earned the actor an Oscar. He is set to return to theaters this summer with Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”(SD-Agencies)