He has sunk beneath the frigid ocean waters of the Atlantic in Titanic and now Leonardo DiCaprio is soaring to new heights starring in the bio-pic The Aviator, about famed eccentric movie mogul and pilot Howard Hughes.

It seems DiCaprio, who has made a career out of playing larger-than-life men, such as the Titanic's doomed dreamer Jack Dawson and con-artist extraordinaire, Frank Abagnale, Jr., from Catch Me If You Can, is a fan of his new character in Martin Scorsese's film.

"The man really revolutionized commercial travel. Every time you fly from New York to Los Angeles non-stop, you can thank Howard Hughes for that," DiCaprio told Canada AM.

"He was a huge part of the advancement of aviation in our country. Built the biggest plane that was ever built to this day and certainly in the world of Hollywood, he took on the studio system, which to me is always fascinating."

The 30-year-old's keen interest in Hughes began when he first read his biography nine years ago. He even pitched the story idea to writer-director Michael Mann who eventually turned it down.

The movie chronicles Hughes' life from the late 1920s through the 1940s, during which the billionaire inventor, who suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder, became a prolific filmmaker and designed and flew innovative aircraft.

DiCaprio was hooked on the film from the moment he read The Aviator screenplay which included an early sequence about Hughes' fanatic devotion to his First World War film Hell's Angels.

Hughes spent three years of his life and $4 million of his own money on the film and ended up shooting it twice, in order to include sound, once he realized the silent era had ended.

"He compulsively did not stop a project until he felt it was perfect and would risk his own financial background numerous times on different projects. He was a man that was driven and determined," DiCaprio said.

DiCaprio says both him and director Martin Scorsese could relate to that kind of dedication.

"We were like, wow, we know what that's like, being a part of an epic that just goes on and on and on," DiCaprio says.

"Persevering against all the odds and trying to make the best film, being a perfectionist, trying to make the story the best it can be."

DiCaprio displays the passionate side of Hughes throughout the film as his character not only romances the skies but also many of Hollywood's then-leading ladies, including Katherine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett), and Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale).

Moviegoers also get to see Hughes' propensity to take on groundbreaking battles, such as his fight with film censors for the right to show Jane Russell's cleavage on screen, his feuds with Pan-Am and his victory over a corrupt senator played by Alan Alda.

"Alan Alda plays senator Owen Brewster who is somebody in cahoots. He is trying to basically create a corporate monopoly in our country, and Howard Hughes was probably the only individual at the time that could go against that character, went up against the senate on his own," DiCaprio said.

DiCaprio's portrayal of Hughes, has led some to draw a parallel between the baby-faced movie star and the eccentric tycoon.

Like Hughes, he has been known to value his privacy and has suffered a mild form of OCD as a child. He has also been romantically linked to several beautiful women, including supermodels Eva Herzigova, Amber Valetta and Gisele Bundchen.

But DiCaprio insists that while he and Hughes are alike in some ways, they're also very different.

"I certainly can't imagine taking things to the level Hughes did in his life. It's too exhausting. The man led 20 different lifetimes in one life."

Yet like Hughes, DiCaprio has his eyes focussed squarely on the future and his next project.

Teaming up again with Scorsese the pair are already hard at work on a third collaboration tentatively titled The Departed.

It's an update of the Hong Kong cop-and-gangster tale Infernal Affairs and is set to begin shooting next year.

With files from the Associated Press