Martin Scorsese recently spoke with Shortlist about his gestating biopic on famous entertainer Frank Sinatra, which will now have to follow his forthcoming children’s film “The Invention Of Hugo Cabret,” Jesuit-priest pic “Silence” and mob-film “The Irishman” with Robert De Niro.
“We’re still working on the ‘Sinatra’ script,” Scorsese reiterates. “It’s very hard because here is a man who changed the entire image of the Italian-American. And that’s just one thing. Along with his political work, civil rights, the Mob…”
While the director once again confirms he has yet to discuss the role with any actor, he did name-drop a few actors he’d like to work with in the future, aside from usual collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio.
“Johnny Depp is one. I like him. He’s unique. I don’t know how he does it. George Clooney. Brad Pitt is interesting. And Tobey Maguire. There’s a lot of good people.”
It sounds like just an A-list name-dropping session but, interestingly, Depp and Clooney were previously linked to the role of Sinatra alongside DiCaprio, with a reported three way battle between the director, the studio and Sinatra’s daughter rumored to be taking place about which actor would best fit the role. Though perhaps Scorsese appeased all parties by fitting all three in? That being said, the director flat out denies talking to any of them about the Sinatra film, so its all conjecture at this point.
“I was hoping it would be a combination of the two [“The Aviator” and “Goodfellas”]. Yeah, because in structure I’d like it to be more like ‘GoodFellas.’ But like ‘The Aviator,’ it only deals with certain times in his life. We can’t go through the greatest hits of Sinatra’s life. We tried this already. Just can’t 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 I’m saying? So that’s what we’re trying for. It’s very tricky [laughs].”
Could this mean Scorsese will be utilizing multiple actors to portray different times in Sinatra’s life like Todd Haynes’ “I’m Not There”? Imagine that: DiCaprio as the younger Sinatra, Depp as the older and Clooney as the middle-aged, all running around in the same film. It’s purely wishful thinking on our part but wouldn’t that be something? Scorsese had previously discussed the inter-cutting script but seems more assured about what he’s going for this time around.
Either way, with three pics ahead of ‘Sinatra’ in the pecking order, don’t expect this is to film until 2012 at the very earliest.