Two stories to tell here.
a) Leonardo DiCaprio continues to only work with the highest-tiered of directors. He’s made a career out of only and exclusively choosing the best of the best in Hollywood film directors; Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Clint Eastwood, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
b) Guillermo del Toro hasn’t made a movie since 2017’s Oscar-winning “The Shape of Water.” He currently has a live-action “Pinnochio” in-store for Netflix and now this new project with DiCaprio, which is a remake of 1940’s film noir “Nightmare Alley.” Del Toro’s filmography these last few years reads like an eclectically balanced mash-up of genre cinema: “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “The Shape of Water,” “Pacific Rim,” “Crimson Peak,” and “Hellboy II: The Golden Army.”
IndieWire: “As first reported by Variety, DiCaprio has entered final negotiations to star in the lead role of mentalist and con artist Stanton “Stan” Carlisle. Tyrone Power played the character in the 1947 film adaptation, directed by Edmund Goulding and released by 20th Century Fox.”
But, if you take Borys Kit’s tweet as the truth, and I have no doubt it is based on his reputation, why reject the latest PTA script for a remake of an oldie by a slightly lesser filmmaker, no offense Guillermo?