Without a doubt, Lou Reed is one of the most influential musicians and poets to perform in the last 50 years. His work with Velvet Underground and, obviously, as a solo artist is beloved by fans all over the world. Apparently, before his death, one of Reed’s biggest fans was none other than Martin Scorsese. And according to the filmmaker, there were multiple times that the two men flirted with the idea of working with each other over the course of decades, to no avail.
In a piece published by The Guardian, written by Scorsese, the legendary filmmaker explains multiple times that his path crossed with Reed’s. The mutual respect the men had for each other led them to both wanting to work together, whether it be with the musician acting or the filmmaker adapting one of Reed’s works. Alas, it never came to be.
“I was so touched when he wrote a song about me and Sam Shepard on his 1984 album New Sensations – actually, it was about our work and how much it meant to him,” said the filmmaker.
“In 1987, he auditioned for the role of Pontius Pilate in my film ‘The Last Temptation of Christ,’ but his old friend David Bowie ended up playing the part,” Scorsese added. “In the 90s, we tried to get a film made based on ‘Dirty Boulevard’ from Lou’s album New York, from a script by Reinaldo Povod, who had written a play called ‘Cuba and His Teddy Bear’ with Bob De Niro and who later passed away at a very young age. We were never able to get that picture into production.”
However, there was one project that was being developed that not only had a link between Lou Reed and Scorsese, but also had Robert De Niro interested, as well. According to the filmmaker, there was a time that he and De Niro were going to adapt the short story, “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities,” written by famed author Delmore Schwartz. Unfortunately, the project never came to fruition, but Scorsese recalls a time when he talked about the project with Reed and discovered that the musician considered Schwartz his mentor.
“After the screening, I happened to mention to Lou that I wanted to make a film out of a short story called ‘In Dreams Begin Responsibilities’ by Delmore Schwartz, which I had read the year before when Bob De Niro and I were working on the script,” wrote Scorsese. “I was amazed when he told me that he’d been a student of Schwartz’s at Syracuse University, and he was just as amazed that I knew this autobiographical story by his mentor, the man who gave him a foundation in poetry, and that it had resonated so deeply for me. Later, I thought about adapting In Dreams for my contribution to ‘New York Stories.’ I’d still like to make that film one day.”
Reed, of course, passed away on October 27, 2013. Perhaps one day we’ll get to see ‘In Dreams’ from Scorsese. If nothing else, it’s interesting to see just how close fans came to a collaboration between the two men. If you’d like to hear Lou Reed read ‘In Dreams,’ Open Culture has you covered.