'Babel' director wants Leonardo DiCaprio in 'The Revenant'

Inarritu is adapting the Michael Punke novel in his next movie, which is being produced by New Regency, Deadline reported.

The director is keen to cast the 'Titanic' star as 1820s frontiersman Hugh Glass, who hires on to a fur trapping expedition and is badly mauled by a bear that he's unable to be transported back from the wilderness. He hires two men to stay behind. Expecting him to die, they rob and abandon him instead. When he recovers, he is hellbent on revenge.

Inarritu wants Penn to play one of the men who leaves Glass to die. 20th Century Fox will distribute.