Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
Producer Puts Scorsese Sequel Straight Onto The Torrents
Posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
Tommy Pallotta, producer of Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, has released his new film, American Prince, directly into the bit torrent file-sharing community. The film is a sequel to Martin Scorsese’s little-seen documentary American Boy, which amounted to almost an hour of actor Steven Prince telling tales, reportedly true tales from his life, to a small audience of friends. One of these stories was used in Pallotta’s Waking Life, in fact - retold by Prince and then converted to the digitally rotoscoped style of that film. Another formed the basis for one of the most memorable scenes in Pulp Fiction, and I’ll include Prince’s version of that story at the bottom of the post.
Could Johnny Depp Be Martin Scorsese’s Sinatra?
Posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Yesterday it was announced that Martin Scorsese finally on board to direct a Frank Sinatra biopic titled Sinatra. Well guess what? The casting rumors have already begun. Nikki Finke claims that Johnny Depp is Universal’s top choice to play old blue eyes. Depp and Scorsese have yet to work together, and this project seems to be a perfect fit.
Martin Scorsese has added yet another film to his already overfilled plat of upcoming projects, but this one actually sounds like it could be all sorts of awesome. Universal Pictures and Mandalay Pictures have signed the Academy Award winning filmmaker to direct a biopic based on the life of Frank Sinatra.
Phil Alden Robinson is writing the screenplay, titled simply Sinatra. Robinson is probably best known as the writer/director of Sneakers and Field of Dreams, which he was nominated for an Academy Award.
Shutter Island and A Christmas Carol Posters Premiere at Cannes
Posted on Monday, May 11th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Our friends at FirstShowing are in France for the Cannes Film Festival, and have gotten a bunch of snapshots of some of the cool promotional posters for upcoming films. Above are the billboards for Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island starring Leonard Dicaprio, and Robert Zemeckis‘ performance capture 3D adaptation of A Christmas Carol, starring Jim Carrey.I’m really digging the redish-orange on black look of the Scorsese poster.
Empire Premiere Behind-the-Scenes Shutter Island Picture
Posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
The unwinding of the Empire magazine 20th Anniversary pearl necklace goes on and on with yet another exclusive revealed this afternoon. This time, they have a behind-the-scenes image of Martin Scorsese talking to Leonardo Di Caprio and Michelle Williams on the set - or more likely location - of Shutter Island. I’ve cropped off Leo in the picture above.
Empire atrribute descriptions of the film in their piece to both Mark Ruffalo and Scorsese himself. If that hype is to be believed, this will be one of Scorsese’s “great films.” Those quotes coming right up…
Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ on Hulu
Posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ is now available for free viewing on Hulu . While I don’t recommend that you watch the two hours and 43 minute movie on your computer, the option is now available to you. Scorsese’s account of the life of Jesus Christ is based on the controversial 1960 novel of the same name. The film departs from the commonly-accepted Biblical portrayal of Jesus’ life, and depicts him as a man who was still subject to every form of temptation that humans face. The movie was shot on a small budget of $7 million over the course of 58 days in Morocco. I have embedded the movie after the jump. Feel free to discuss the film in the comments below.
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Early Teaser Poster For Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island
Posted on Friday, March 27th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
RopeofSilicon have gotten their hands on an early teaser poster for Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s novel Shutter Island, which was published in a Berliner Zeitung newspaper. I’m pretty sure, and hope, that this is just an early marketing concept.
Woody Allen and Miyazaki Not Included on EW’s 25 Greatest Active Film Directors List
Posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Entertainment Weekly just published their list of the 25 Greatest Active Film Directors. It’s one of those really annoying slideshow stories, so we’ve done the legwork and printed the entire shortlist after the jump.
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Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Eric Roth Want to Make a Film Within a Film
Posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
In October, it was reported that Martin Scorsese had signed on to direct Robert De Niro in an adaptation of Charles Brandt’s 2005 novel I Heard You Paint Houses. Adapted by Schindler’s List scribe Steve Zaillian, the movie will tell the story of Frank “the Irishman” Sheeran, a mob assassin who is believed to have carried out more than 25 mob murders, and claimed to have killed Jimmy Hoffa. Last month, Robert De Niro mentioned that he would also be reteaming with Marty on a second project.
“We have an even more ambitious plan of doing another movie connected to it, in some way, with Eric Roth hopefully writing that script,” De Niro said.
When I talked with Academy Award-winning screenwriter Eric Roth (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Forrest Gump) earlier in the week, I tried to find out more about the project. Roth wasn’t talking, but I was able to get a few details out of him. Ready?
Roth calls the second movie is “an odd ball thing” and revealed that it is “a film within a film [I Head You Paint Houses]“.
No word on when this project would go into production, but one would assume that both movies would be filmed simultaneously. When the project was announced in October, Paramount was aiming for a 2011 release. Find out more about I Heard You Paint Houses in our previous article.
I totally missed this item in the latest issue of Production Weekly, but Alex from FirstShowing sent me a link to this story on Cinemablend about a project called Falcon’s Tale that Martin Scorsese is supposedly attached to direct. What is this movie? A quick internet search turns up NOTHING. But I decided to dig a little deeper and have come upon more information about the project.
James Keene and author/reporter Hillel Levin sold a one-page description of this story to Playboy and to Paramount / GK Films (the production company behind Edge of Darkness) in a seven-figure film deal in November 2007. The article, titled “The Strange Redemption of James Keene”, appeared in the August 2008 issue of Playboy on page 54. The book is due to be released by St. Martin’s in Fall 2009. So what is the story about?
“James Keene was serving a 10-year-to-life sentence as a convicted drug dealer when the FBI came to him with an amazing offer. They wanted him to enter a high-security prison for the criminally insane in order to get information from a suspected serial killer awaiting retrial. If he helped them succeed, they would free James from prison. Only one person in the prison would know Jim’s true identity.”
Sounds very compelling. Academy Award-winning screenwriter William Monahan (The Departed) is penning the screenplay adaptation. And as you know, Monahan has ties to Scorsese, and penned The Departed, which makes the story that much more believable. I’m not sure if Scorsese is officially attached, and even if he is, that doesn’t mean that he will direct it (if Scorsese directs 10% of the films he is currently attached to, I’ll be amazed).
Mike Nichols, David Mamet and Martin Scorsese to Remake Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low
Posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
Mike Nichols (Closer, Charlie Wilson’s War) will direct a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low.
Based loosely on Evan Hunter’s King’s Ransom, the original 1963 detective thriller that tells the story of an executive named Kingo Gondo, who learns that his son has been kidnapped. He is prepared to pay the ransom amount until he discovers that the kidnappers mistakenly abducted the child of his chauffeur. Gondo must decide between using the money he has saved up for a critical corporate buyout, or to use the cash to save his drivers son.
If the names involved thus far don’t get you excited, then read on. Originally commissioned by Martin Scorsese in 1999, the screenplay is written by David Mamet. The film has yet to begin casting, but it sounds like the ball is now rolling after years of being stalled due to rights issues. Scott Rudin will produce, and its likely that Scorsese will executive produce.
This is one of the few Kurosawa films that I have yet to see. But now it looks like I might have to order the new Criterion and clear out some time to watch it.
Big Directors Small Films: Martin Scorsese’s What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This
Posted on Saturday, October 18th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
In this week’s edition of Big Directors Small Films, we take a look at one of Martin Scorsese’s first films, What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This. You can definitely see the early genius of his visual styling and editing choices. Scorsese shot the film on 16mm film in 1963, while he was a student at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. The production photo below shows Scorsese directing the short film.
Described by Scorsese as “a tale of pure paranoia”, the nine-minute surrealistic comedic short tells the story of a writer who becomes obsessed with a picture he has on his wall. Scorsese considers this his first film, and says that he was inspired by Mel Brooks’s collaboration with Ernest Pintoff on the animation short, The Critic. Scorsese says that the film had “more to do with the way the film looked and was cut than anything else.” It’s also worth noting that he shot this film two weeks after seeing Fellini’s 8 1/2 for the first time.
If anyone has a suggestion for a future edition of Big Directors Small Films, please e-mail us.
