Director Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, And Jennifer Lawrence Are Prepping The Ultimate Showbiz Biopic
"Killers of the Flower Moon" may have ended with a bittersweet final coda from Martin Scorsese, but the acclaimed octogenarian director clearly still has plenty of future projects on his plate. Variety just broke the news that Scorsese apparently has a Frank Sinatra biopic in the works, and while the filmmaker's reps declined to comment, the outlet claims he has none other than frequent leading man Leonardo DiCaprio in mind to play the lead. The filmmaker's take on the famous crooner's life also reportedly will include a major part for Jennifer Lawrence, who sources say will play Sinatra's second wife, Ava Gardner.
According to the trade outlet, the Sinatra picture isn't exactly a done deal: Variety notes that Sinatra's daughter Tina, who controls the late singer's estate, hasn't given her blessing for the movie yet. Still, studios including Sony and Apple are reportedly interested in the as-yet-untitled film, which Scorsese plans to shoot after wrapping another upcoming project about the life of Jesus Christ. Variety reports that the filmmaker's plan for the two films is to shoot them "back to back," a decision that underscores the director's recent comments about his sense that he's running out of time to create all the work he wants to make.
Scorsese may be shooting two films back to back
"I wish I could take a break for eight weeks and make a film at the same time," the director told Deadline last October, adding, "The whole world has opened up to me, but it's too late ... I want to tell stories, and there's no more time." The beloved filmmaker who brought the world such great films as "Goodfellas," "Taxi Driver," and "The Departed" went on to quote Akira Kurosawa, who upon receiving an honorary Oscar in his '80s said, "I'm only now beginning to see the possibility of what cinema could be, and it's too late." Fortunately, Scorsese isn't letting age stop him from making the projects he wants to bring to life.
Of course, as talented as DiCaprio is, he's not exactly known for his singing. If the Variety-reported cast ends up boarding the project, fans will surely be left wondering whether the actor will perform live vocals, lip-sync to the original music, or do some sort of combination of the two. The period the film plans to cover is also not yet apparent; Gardner was Sinatra's second wife, while his first, the mother of Tina Sinatra, was Nancy Barbato. The musician also had high-profile marriages to Mia Farrow and Barbara Marx, along with complex relationships with other members of the informal musician group known as the Rat Pack.
Along with the Sinatra biopic and Jesus-centric film, which will begin shooting this year, Scorsese is executive producing a new "Cape Fear" TV series alongside Steven Spielberg. The Sinatra film does not yet have a release date.