Leonardo DiCaprio is set to turn on, tune in and drop out for his next project. The actor's Appian Way shingle has tapped Obie-winning playwright Craig Lucas and Timothy Leary archivist Michael Horowitz to develop a biopic on the counterculture icon as a possible starring vehicle.

DiCaprio, who knew Leary before his death in 1996, has been looking to develop a film on the LSD advocate for several years. The film will focus on Leary's life between his enrollment at West Point in the early 1940s and his escape from prison in 1970.

Lucas, who in recent years has worked outside the Hollywood mainstream, once worked as a frustrated studio scribe. The unconventional writer-director, who made his helming debut last year with the critically acclaimed indie "The Dying Gaul," penned such films as "The Secret Lives of Dentists" and "Prelude to a Kiss," which was adapted from a play of his.

The untitled Timothy Leary project is being produced by DiCaprio, George DiCaprio and Brad Simpson of Appian Way under their first-look deal with Warner Bros. Pictures, and Hillard Elkins of Elkins Entertainment.