According to Deadline, DiCaprio will produce the film and develop it as a potential star vehicle for himself.
The story concerns two young albino black boys in Jim Crow-era Virginia who were either kidnapped or sent into the circus by their mother in 1899.
They lost touch with her and became famous performers, appearing as monstrous caricatures such as “sheep-headed cannibals” or “ambassadors from Mars”.
Earlier this week it was announced that DiCaprio was also planning to produce a film adaptation of the 1990s children’s cartoon show Captain Planet, about a superhero who fights pollution.