French 'Artist' actor linked to Scorsese film: report

Dujardin, who won the best actor Academy Award in February for his role in the silent black and white film, is tipped to join Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill in Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street."

The movie is based on a book by former disgraced stockbroker Jordan Belfort about his rise and fall on Wall Street, along with the hard-partying lifestyle and his stormy personal life, Variety said.

The 39-year-old French actor would play Jean-Jacques Handali, a smooth-talking Swiss banker engaged in money laundering for Belfort -- who himself was jailed for money laundering in the 1990s -- played by DiCaprio.

Filming will begin this summer in New York on the movie, which is based on a screenplay by Terence Winter.

Dujardin, the first Frenchman to win the best actor Oscar, appears in the comedy "The Players" (Les Infideles), released in France a few days after the Oscars and produced by the Weinstein Company, which was behind "The Artist."

He is also attached to star with Tim Roth in "Mobius" by French director Eric Rochant, according to Variety.

Publicists for Dujardin in France and the United States could not immediately be contacted to comment on or confirm the report.