Leonardo DiCaprio to Headline THE CROWDED ROOM as Multiple Personalities

In his latest endeavor, Leonardo DiCaprio will be portraying not one, but 24 characters.

The Academy Award nominee is set to lead THE CROWDED ROOM, a film adaptation of the nonfiction book, THE MINDS OF BILLY MILLIGAN, which depicts a man suffering from multiple personality disorder.

Out of control of his own actions, Billy Milligan was a man tormented by twenty-four distinct personalities battling for SUPREMACY over his body - a battle that culminated when he awoke in jail, arrested for the kidnap and rape of three women. In a landmark trial, Billy was acquitted of his crimes by reason of insanity caused by multiple personality - the first such decision in history - bringing to public light the most remarkable and harrowing case of multiple personality ever recorded.

Twenty-four people live inside Billy Milligan.

Philip, a petty criminal; Kevin, who dealt drugs and masterminded a drugstore robbery; April whose only ambition was to kill Billy's stepfather; Adalana, the shy, lonely, affection-starved lesbian who "used" Billy's body in the rapes that led to his arrest; David, the eight-year-old "keeper of pain"; Arthur, the Englishman; Ragen, the "keeper of Rage" who possessed incredible strength; Allen, the con man; Tommy, the escape-artist, and all of the others, including men, women, several children, both boys and girls, and the Teacher, the only one who can put them all together. Each of these "people" play a distinct role in this often shocking true story, THE MINDS OF BILLY MILLIGAN.

Could this finally be DiCaprio's Oscar-winning role?

William Stanley Milligan (February 14, 1955 - December 12, 2014), known as Billy Milligan, was an American citizen who was the subject of a highly publicized court case in Ohio in the late 1970s. After having committed several felonies including armed robbery, he was arrested for three rapes on the Ohio State University campus. In the course of preparing his defense, psychologists diagnosed Milligan with multiple personality disorder. His lawyers pleaded insanity, claiming that two of his alternate personalities committed the crimes without Milligan's being aware of it. He was the first person diagnosed with multiple personality disorder to raise such a defense, and the first acquitted of a major crime by this reason, instead spending a decade in mental hospitals. Milligan's life story was popularized by Daniel Keyes's award-winning non-fiction novel The Minds of Billy Milligan (1981, available in fourteen languages).

Source: THR

To post a comment, you must register and login.