Jonah Hill to Co-Star with Leonardo DiCaprio in 'Wolf of Wall Street'

12:27 PM PDT 5/4/2012 by Borys Kit

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Hill continues his movement toward more dramatic work with a role in Martin Scorsese's adaptation of the Jordan Belfort memoir.

Jonah Hill is looking to continue his foray into drama with The Wolf of Wall Street.

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The actor, known primarily for his comedies but who surprised many with an Oscar nomination for his supporting performance in last year’s baseball drama Moneyball, is in negotiations to join Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of the Jordan Belfort memoir.

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DiCaprio is playing Belfort, a Long Island penny stock broker who served 20 months in prison for participating in a massive 1990s securities fraud that involved widespread corruption on Wall Street and in the corporate banking world, including mob infiltration. Belfort -- who lived large, owned a yacht that sank off the coast of Sardinia and became an alcoholic and drug addict -- served as an inspiration for Ben Younger's 2000 movie Boiler Room.

Hill is set to play Danny Porush, who is convinced by his future best friend and business partner Belfort to quit his job in furniture sales and enter the lucrative yet volatile world of stock brokering. The film chronicles the duo’s meteoric rise and colossal fall amid scandal, fraud and excess.

DiCaprio and Scorsese are producing with Red Granite’s Riza Aziz and Joey McFarland, as well as Emma Koskoff of Sikelia Productions and Alexandra Milchan of EMJAG Productions. Red Granite is financing the picture.

Hill is riding high off his starring turn in the action comedy 21 Jump Street, which he also had a hand in conceiving, coming up with the story and acting as executive producer.

He next co-stars with Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn in the sci-fi action comedy Neighborhood Watch and will appear as himself in The End of the World, the directorial debut of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.

He is repped by WME and Jackoway Tyerman.

Email: Borys.Kit@thr.com

Twitter: @Borys_Kit