Leonardo DiCaprio Gives 'Red Riding Hood' the 'Twilight' Treatment

Amanda Seyfried in 'Red Riding Hood' Warner Bros. Pictures The trailer for "Red Riding Hood" makes it seem the classic fairy tale has received the "Twilight" treatment.

This isn't surprising. The director of "Red Riding Hood" -- Catherine Hardwicke -- also shot the first installment of the world's most profitable sparkly vampire franchise. What might be surprising, though, it is that the idea for an amped-up fairy tale bursting with adolescent angst didn't come from her.

Instead, it came from Leonardo DiCaprio.

According to Hardwicke, who was recently interviewed for the Los Angeles Times, DiCaprio thought, "Wouldn’t it be cool to do a Gothic twist on Red Riding Hood, with the wolf being a werewolf, and just have a cool, sexy romantic thriller?" Soon his company, Appian Way, began to develop the idea.

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Judging from the trailer, which you can see below, Leo got exactly what he asked for. By the looks of it, "Twilight" fans are going to be very pleased with the results.

It opens with Amanda Seyfried gamboling in an autumnal glade with a handsome young suitor, Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), who sports an anachronistic faux-hawk. As they embrace, we hear Seyfried say, "I’ll do anything to be with you." And then, suddenly, the trailer makes a left turn into Gothic! There’s talk of killer wolves, there’s foreboding music, there’s Gary Oldman.

From what I can piece together, Amanda is in love with Peter though she's betrothed to Henri (Max Irons), another handsome young suitor in a faux-hawk. Someone in the village is a lupine supernatural killer, but, in spite of Oldman's glowering looks, no one is 'fessing up. Somewhere along the lines, Seyfried dons her red cloak and goes to grandmother's house.

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So -- Is this flick like "Twilight?" Or has this trailer been edited to remind everyone of "Twilight?" On the one hand, the set-up does seem remarkably familiar, with one or both of Seyfried's paramours most likely werewolves. That sounds a lot like that other lycanthrope love triangle Hardwicke is associated with. On the other hand, there's a claustrophobic paranoia here that feels much more akin to horror movies like "The Thing."

So which is it? To find that out, you'll have to wait until the movie comes out in March 2011.