Leonardo DiCaprio is said to be in line to play the lead role in the big screen adaptation of "The Cartel."

Deadline reported the news, saying that the 40-year-old "The Revenant" actor is being courted to portray DEA agent Art Keller. "The Cartel," which was written by Don Winslow as a follow-up to 2006's "The Power of the Dog," narrates how Keller battled with Mexican drug kingpin Adan Berrera.

Keller and Berrera were former friends whose paths deviated when the former worked for the police, while the latter joined the Sonora drug cartel, Business Standard wrote.

The book parallels with the story of Sinaloa drug cartel leader, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who's currently the subject of a manhunt after escaping from a maximum security prison earlier this month, Fox News Latino noted.

20^th Century Fox was granted the screen rights of Winslow's novel, with Ridley Scott jumping in as the director. According to Deadline, the production studio paid over $1 million for "The Cartel," which is almost the same amount for the adaptation of "The Power of the Dog." A commitment of "near $6 million for book rights and screenwriting fees for the two" was also made, the news outlet added.

Winslow and his deal partner, Story Factory's Shane Salerno (who will pen the movie's screenplay) opted to sell the cinematic rights of the novel because of Scott's past work, Deadline reported. The filmmaker worked on the 2013 crime thriller movie, "The Counselor," which was written by Cormac McCarthy and starred Michael Fassbender.

Scott Free Films president Michael Schaefer will produce the movie adaptation of "The Cartel" alongside Scott, The Hollywood Reporter wrote. Steve Asbell will be overseeing the project for 20^th Century Fox.

The movie deal for the novel took place on Wednesday night "after intense interest from the major studios and producers," the news outlet added. Executives and observers have been setting their sights on the project "not just for the ripped-from-the-headlines similarities but also for the acclaimed reviews of the book that are praising it as a south-of-the-border version of 'The Godfather,'" The Hollywood Reporter explained.

According to the news outlet, the June 2015 release of Winslow's novel was perfectly timed to El Chapo's July prison break. Winslow did wide research on the notorious drug leader for the book, which also featured a fictional version of El Chapo's first jailbreak in 2001.

"The Cartel" is expected to debut in theaters in 2016, Business Standard noted.