Riley plays a younger Leonardo in the drama which is described as a historical fantasy following the "untold" story of the genius during his youth in Renaissance Florence. The twenty-five year old da Vinci is an artist, inventor, swordsman, lover, dreamer, and idealist who "begins not only to see the future but to invent it."
The project hails from David S. Goyer (THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, MAN OF STEEL) and BBC Worldwide. Said Goyer on his project:
“Given that da Vinci was the model for the ‘Renaissance Man,’ these were incredibly large shoes to fill. Leonardo had to be smart, witty, and incredibly confident – without coming across as arrogant. He also had to be tormented, because, as a true visionary and polymath, he was ostracized for his ideas as much as he was celebrated. Tom [Riley] came in and was able to effortlessly combine all of those elements. As soon as he finished his audition, we knew we’d found our man.”All this comes mere months after Universal made their intentions clear to turn da Vinci into an action hero, akin to what Warner Bros. has accomplished with their SHERLOCK HOLMES franchise.
