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Mel Brooks has won an Oscar, a Tony, a Grammy, an Emmy, and endless, endless accolades. Later this month, he’ll be honored once more when Martin Scorsese presents him the American Film Institute’s 41st Life Achievement Award. (Scorsese has also been awarded AFI’s Life Achievement Award, back in 1997.)
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• Martin Scorsese has found a new leading man in Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man) for his feature Silence, based on Shusaku Endo’s 1966 Japanese-language novel. The fictional story follows a 17th century Portuguese Jesuit missionary to Japan. Ken Watanabe (Inception) also stars in the film, which will be largely shot in Japanese. At one point, Daniel Day-Lewis and Benicio del Toro were going to star in the film. [Variety]
• James Franco is set to join Paris, Texas director Wim Wenders’ upcoming drama Everything Will Be Fine, about a writer who kills a child accidentally. The story will follow Thomas (Franco) for 12 years after the accident as he attempts to live a normal life. Sarah Polley (Splice) also stars. Wenders plans to make the film in 3-D — his second using the format. His first was the 2011 Oscar-nominated documentary Pina. [THR]
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Acclaimed film critic Roger Ebert has written many words of praise over the years for celebrated, prolific filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Harvey Weinstein. Now, following the news of Ebert’s death on Thursday, these three filmmakers have their own words of admiration for Ebert.
Spielberg — whom Ebert praised for his enduring “talent and flexibility” in an ever-changing industry — said in a statement that the Chicago Sun-Times critic “wrote with passion through a real knowledge of film and film history.” Read his full statement below, which also highlights the success of the multiple television programs Ebert hosted for 23 years (including At the Movies, which Ebert co-hosted with Gene Siskel, who is pictured above): READ FULL STORY »
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The Tribeca Film Festival has a closer — and it’s a laffer: TFF will wrap up on April 27 with a screening of Martin Scorsese’ 1983 The King of Comedy, which will be restored and re-screened in honor of the film’s thirtieth anniversary.
The film is being restored digitally from Sony Colorworks’ original camera negatives and festival organizers credit Scorsese with the focus on reviving, restoring, and re-screening old films.
In case you’ve forgotten, The King of Comedy is a pattering, blacker-than-blue satire starring Robert DeNiro as a wannabe comedian and Jerry Lewis as the late-night star he idolizes and kidnaps. Sandra Bernhard co-stars, in her debut, as a woman so crazy she’s first seen trying to smack Lewis’ face with hers.
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio are taking their stock market true crime thriller The Wolf of Wall Street to Paramount Pictures, EW has confirmed. The studio has picked up the domestic distribution rights to the film, adapted from Jordan Belfort’s memoir of his time as a hard-partying trader eventually sentenced to prison for fraud and insider trading. No release date has been set yet, but Paramount is eyeing the fourth quarter of 2013, a prime awards season corridor.
The film costars Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jean Dujardin, and The Walking Dead‘s Jon Bernthal. Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter penned the screenplay.
[Deadline]
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Reps for Martin Scorsese called the lawsuit filed against the director — which claims breach of written contract, intentional misrepresentation, and negligent misrepresentation around the filming of the movie Silence – a “meritless action” and believe it has “all the earmarks of a media stunt.”
Below is Scorsese’s full statement in response to the filing:
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Martin Scorsese has been sued for breach of written contract, intentional misrepresentation, and negligent misrepresentation by the production company behind Silence, a film project that Scorsese allegedly promised to direct and co-produce over two decades ago.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court and obtained by EW, Cecchi Gori Pictures, a production company, claims they entered into an agreement with Scorsese and his production company, Sikelia Productions Inc., in 1990 to direct Silence, based on a Japanese novel, as his next feature-length movie after Kundun (1997). The Cecchi Gori Parties claim they’ve invested over $750,000 in the project.
“In 2004, Scorsese and Sikeila entered into further agreements to postpose Silence so that Scorsese could direct The Departed (2006), Shutter Island (2010), and Hugo (2011) before co-producing and directing Silence,” the court papers allege. “In those agreements, Scorsese/Sikelia agreed to pay substantial compensation and other valuable benefits, for the right to direct these three other films prior to Silence.” They also allege that Scorsese/Sikeila’s contractual obligations remain unfulfilled as to the film Hugo. READ FULL STORY »
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One of the strangest sequel projects in movie history is no longer a sequel. In a joint statement, MGM Studios and Dahlia Waingort, the producer of the film originally known as Raging Bull II, declared on Wednesday that Waingort’s film now has the working title The Bronx Bull, and is in no way associated with Martin Scorsese’s 1980 film Raging Bull.
The announcement resolves a lawsuit brought by MGM in July that attempted to shut down production on the film, which traces the life of boxer Jake LaMotta in the years that span before and after Raging Bull. LaMotta, now 91 years old, has been cooperating with that project, but it otherwise had nothing to do with Scorsese’s film, which won star Robert De Niro an Academy Award. Instead, Boardwalk Empire‘s William Forsythe is playing the older LaMotta, with Mojean Aria playing him as a youth.
Check out the full statement below: READ FULL STORY »
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Attempting a sequel to Raging Bull seems like a thankless task, but making Raging Bull II just got even more complicated. MGM, the studio that owns the rights to Martin Scorsese’s classic 1980 film that won an Oscar for Robert DeNiro’s portrayal of 1950′s middleweight boxer Jake LaMotta, filed a complaint Tuesday against the 91-year-old fighter himself, as well as the production company behind the sequel. Claiming that LaMotta had a contractual obligation to offer them the film rights to his follow-up book, 1986′s Raging Bull II, MGM wants a jury to shut down the in-production project. “LaMotta and the RBII Defendants are publicly associating the Sequel Picture with the [original] in a manner that is plainly calculated to create confusion in the marketplace and to trade off the value of the [original],” MGM’s attorney claimed in their complaint, according to documents posted on Deadline.
Scorsese and DeNiro are not involved in the sequel in any way. William Forsythe (Boardwalk Empire), instead, plays the aging LaMotta and Mojean Aria plays him as a younger man. Cloris Leachman, Penelope Ann Miller, Joe Mantagne, Tom Sizemore, and Paul Sorvina are also set to star.
Read more:
Martin Scorsese on the ‘Raging Bull’ sequel
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• Jean Dujardin is in talks to follow-up his Oscar-winning performance in The Artist with Martin Scorsese‘s feature film adaptation of the best-selling memoir The Wolf of Wall Street. Dujardin would play Swiss banker Jean-Jacques Handali, who colluded with Wall Street trader Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) to launder money. Jonah Hill and Kyle Chandler costar in the film, scripted by Terence Winter (Boardwalk Empire). [Variety]
• Adam Levine, Maroon 5 frontman and sassy judge/mentor on The Voice, is venturing into the world of feature film acting, signing on to star in Can a Song Save Your Life, the next film from Once director John Carney. Levine will play the not-so-nice musician boyfriend to Keira Knightley‘s character. Mark Ruffalo and Hailee Steinfeld costar. [Deadline]
• Benicio Del Toro will play the title role in Jimmy Picard, based on the non-fiction book Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian, about a Native American WWII vet who befriends a French psychiatrist (Mathieu Amalric, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). Arnaud Desplechin (A Christmas Tale) will direct. [Deadline]
• Dermot Mulroney has joined Jobs, the currently filming indie biopic of Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs (Ashton Kutcher). He’ll play Mike Markkula, one of the earliest investors in the Silicon Valley company. Joshua Michael Stern (Swing Vote) is directing from a script by first-time feature screenwriter Matt Whiteley. [Deadline]
• Judy Greer (The Descendants) and Portia Doubleday (Youth in Revolt) have signed on to director Kimberly Peirce‘s remake of Stephen King’s novel Carrie. Greer will play gym teacher Miss Collins, one of the only characters who’s kind to Carrie White (Chloe Moretz); and Doubleday will play Chris Hargensen, the ringleader of the popular kids who torment Carrie. [Deadline]
Read more:
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