5/24/2010
Martin Scorsese Wants Al Pacino & Robert De Niro To Play Frank Sinatra & Dean Martin In Upcoming Biopic
While doing press rounds for "Shutter Island" which only opened in India this past weekend, Martin Scorsese spoke with national newspaper The Hindu and took the opportunity to talk about one of his many gestating projects, a biopic of American music icon Frank Sinatra.
As we previously reported, the director has noted that Sinatra's life is epic, making the straightforward biopic particularly difficult, and Scorsese is hoping an approach with a few actors playing the singer at various points in his life will allow him an entry into the story saying, "We cant go through the greatest hits of Sinatras life. We tried this already. Just cant do it. So the other way to go is to have three or four different Sinatras. Younger. Older. Middle-aged. Very old. You cut back and forth in time and you do it through the music. See what Im saying? So thats what were trying for. Its very tricky [laughs]."
While names like Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Brad Pitt have been batted around as actors Scorsese would love to work with at some point (though none of them have officially been offered anything at this point), it looks like the director already has his wishlist sorted out for who will play the older incarnations of Sinatra and Dean Martin: "I'm yet to spot the actor who can bring back Frank Sinatra alive on screen. My choice is Al Pacino, and Robert De Niro as Dean Martin."
Um, holy ****. While it's obviously only dream casting at this point, that would make a helluva duo to play the singers in the later stages of their career. We're a little unsure about Pacino, but in the same interview, Scorsese says he's the only actor who match De Niro's talents. At the very least, if he does get cast surely Scorsese can get him to tone down the "hoo-ha" for the part.
However, until a concrete script and cast come together for this, the film will just be one of many -- including "The Irishman," "Silence," a couple of down-and-dirty street movies, a handful of documentaries -- that remain on Scorsese's slate of projects. There's no word on when this will go in front of cameras, but if a script gets locked in that Scorsese likes and that meets with the approval of the various estates involved, it could rapidly move up the pecking order for the director. Scorsese, meantime, is set to begin work next month in Paris on his first 3D film, "Hugo Cabret," starring Chloe Moretz, Asa Butterfield, Sacha Baron Cohen and Ben Kingsley.
