Scorsese got Hughes biopic off the ground

It was a longtime dream of Warren Beatty to play the eccentric aviation mogul and sometime filmmaker Howard Hughes, but it is Leonardo DiCaprio who finally brings the glamorous enigma to the screen, reteaming with his “Gangs of New York” director, Martin Scorsese, for “The Aviator.” High-flying adventure and Hollywood extravagance collide as the film focuses on Hughes’ parallel careers from the 1920s through the 1940s, when he was producing (and even directing) movies while testing the experimental aircrafts he designed. With Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn, Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner and “No Doubt” singer Gwen Stefani as Jean Harlow, there is no shortage of starlets for DiCaprio’s rapacious Hughes to woo. John C. Reilly, Alec Baldwin and Jude Law, as Errol Flynn, also star. “The Aviator,” from Miramax, opens Dec. 17.