Diamonds Update

Leonardo DiCaprio is in talks to make Warner Bros. dramatic thriller The Blood Diamond his next picture, says Variety. Ed Zwick (The Last Samurai), who will direct, rewrote the film with Marshall Herskovitz.

The African adventure is set in Sierra Leone circa 1999, a time when the nation was in the midst of a horrific civil war. DiCaprio would play the role of a smuggler who specializes in the sale of "blood diamonds," also known as "conflict diamonds" -- the precious stones used to finance rebellions, privateers and terrorists.

When the smuggler encounters an indigenous Mende farmer whose young son has disappeared into the RUF's army of child soldiers, the two men's fates become linked.

The studio is hoping to shoot "Diamond" early next year, so that DiCaprio can turn to another Warners project, For Whom the Bell Tolls. He is currently filming Martin Scorsese's The Departed.