Cuban Mafia Movie, The Corporation, to Involve @LeoDiCaprio and Benicio Del Toro

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Paramount Pictures have acquired the production rights for "The Corporation," a film in which Benicio Del Toro will play a Cuban mafia kingpin, Rock Moon Production, the multimedia firm that sold the rights, announced on Wednesday.

The Appian Way production company, owned by DiCaprio, and Paramount Pictures bought the rights to produce the film based on the same-named book by author T.J. English.

Crafting the screenplay will be handled by David Matthews, who has written scripts for well-known HBO series such as "Vinyl" and "Boardwalk Empire."

A bidding war broke out last week among big Hollywood studios and production companies to obtain the rights to English's book, which tells an "epic story" of the Cuban-American underworld.

Del Toro will take on the role of Jose Miguel Battle Sr., the head of the Cuban-American mafia in a film that aims to be a "Cuban version" of "The Godfather" and "American Gangster," according to a statement on the matter.

English is the author of bestsellers such as "Havana Nocturne" and "Born to Kill," and he has been a co-screenwriter for the popular television series "NYPD Blue."

Rock Moon director Tony Gonzalez said that he could not think of a better studio than Paramount to produce the film, given that it is the studio that produced "The Godfather."