Leonardo da Vinci to be depicted as a gay outsider in a TV series from Frank Spotnitz

Variety

Longtime X-Files writer Spotnitz and British writer Steve Thompson are working with Italy's RAI network on Leonardo, an eight-part English-language TV series that will portray the Renaissance genius as a gay outsider. “He was a real outsider for those times. He was an illegitimate child, gay, vegetarian and left-handed,” says Eleonora Andreatta, RAI's head of drama, echoing the description found in Walter Isaacson's new biography on da Vinci. Leonardo is expected to debut in 2019 to mark the 500th anniversary of da Vinci's death.