Scorsese-DiCaprio Parts III, IV and V!

[Guest Vitamin X]

You'd think these guys sick would be sick of each other by now, but if Paramount Pictures gets its way,    Leonardo DiCaprio and    Martin Scorsese may team up yet again for an ever elusive Oscar.

 

According to Daily Variety, the studio has optioned the rights to The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Edmund Morris' Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, in which DiCaprio would star in the title role under the direction of Scorsese.

 

 

The film would trace how Teddy Roosevelt, a privileged but underwhelming New York politician plagued by asthma, transformed himself into the burly commander of the Rough Riders who helped his country win the Spanish-American War and eventually became one of the great presidents of the 20th century. (Hey, the weight gain worked for    Robert De Niro in Raging Bull.)

 

Roosevelt will be adapted by    Nicholas Meyer, who wrote the screenplay for The Human Stain but is perhaps better known among sci-fi cognoscenti for writing and directing Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn.

 

"From the first page of the book...[Roosevelt's] life reads like a movie that requires a big bag of popcorn," Meyer told Variety. "We start at 25, as he begins to transform himself through sheer force of will from this asthmatic, nearsighted 125-pounder to this Sherman tank of a man so tough that he once got shot on the way to make a speech and completed his talk, bleeding with a bullet in his chest."

 

DiCaprio and Scorsese first joined forces for 2002's Gangs of New York and quickly followed with last year's The Aviator. While both films were nominated for Best Picture and Best Director for Scorsese, and DiCaprio getting a Best Actor nod for The Aviator, the two A-listers were shut out in the statuette department.

 

The duo are now shooting their latest Oscar bait, The Departed. A reimagining of the hit Hong Kong police drama Infernal Affairs, the film costars    Jack Nicholson,    Matt Damon and    Alec Baldwin. DiCaprio and Scorsese are also attached to a fourth film together, a remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1948 classic, Drunken Angel.

 

Even with two Scorsese collaborations in the pipeline, the actor still has a way to go before he catches up with De Niro, who's served as the filmmaker's go-to guy in eight-films, including some of his best, like Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull.

 

The Rise of Roosevelt is being produced by Scorsese (who knows a thing or two about asthma having suffered from the respiratory ailment himself since he was a child) along with DiCaprio and his Appian Way partner Brad Simpson. No word when it will start shooting, but if all goes to plan, the film could be in theaters by 2007.

[Hank Kingsley 0]

I like it. Especially the Roosevelt biopic.

[CBright7831 0]

I've been keeping up with The Departed since it started filming. Jack Nicholson rewrote his sex scene in the movie to where his character, Costello, is more of an animal in bed and he even dusts and snorts cocaine off of an actress's ass. He also will be wearing this during the movie.

 

http://imdb.com/title/tt0407887/

[BorneAgain 0]

The film would trace how Teddy Roosevelt, a privileged but underwhelming New York politician plagued by asthma, transformed himself into the burly commander of the Rough Riders who helped his country win the Spanish-American War and eventually became one of the great presidents of the 20th century. (Hey, the weight gain worked for    Robert De Niro in Raging Bull.)

 

Roosevelt will be adapted by    Nicholas Meyer, who wrote the screenplay for The Human Stain but is perhaps better known among sci-fi cognoscenti for writing and directing Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn.

 

*After the 1912 election*

Roosevelt: TAAAAAAAAAAAFT!!!!

[SuperJerk 0]

DiCaprio playing Teddy Roosevelt?

 

What's next? Danny DeVito playing Abe Lincoln?

[spiny norman 0]

While I would probably give Scorcese the title of greatest director alive (in that many people seem to consider him to be in the top five of all time), I concede he has made a few classics in the past (though all with De Niro).

 

That said, if he fails to make a classic in the next five years, I would not have confidence he ever will make one again. The Departed sounds interesting, and the Rooslevelt biopic could be worthwhile, but if either of those turn out to be of the calibre of Gangs of New York I'm not going to hold out hope any longer.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I saw all I needed of Teddy Roosevelt in the History Channels 6 hour Mini-Series thing they had on a couple years ago..

 

I can't see Leo playing him either..

[Guest Vitamin X]

DiCaprio will have to gain a shitload of weight for the role, that's for sure.

[Ravenbomb 0]

While I would probably give Scorcese the title of greatest director alive (in that many people seem to consider him to be in the top five of all time), I concede he has made a few classics in the past (though all with De Niro).

 

That said, if he fails to make a classic in the next five years, I would not have confidence he ever will make one again. The Departed sounds interesting, and the Rooslevelt biopic could be worthwhile, but if either of those turn out to be of the calibre of Gangs of New York I'm not going to hold out hope any longer.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

*shrug* I thought GONY was a great movie

[dubq 0]

*stay the fuck away from Kurosawa you Hollywood bastards!*

[Guest El Satanico]

*stay the fuck away from Kurosawa you Hollywood bastards!*

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's not like we're talking about Micheal Bay here. Kurosawa has been remade well in the past, so why can't Scorcese also do it.

[godthedog 0]

this could prove to be the least satisfying auteur/lead combination in the history of movies. scorsese's still a very skilled director, but he seems to have lost all perception of what makes a good script. it feels like he's been performing this function for the last 8 years or so of really great dressing for half-baked ideas. the last really really good movie he made was 'a personal journey through american movies'. there is nothing electrifying about the di caprio/scorsese combination. nothing. his assistant needs to get him a stellar WRITER, stat.

 

fun fact: at the NYU tisch school of film and television, where scorsese attended (and later taught) film school, they like to have framed posters up in the halls for movies of the school's alumni--spike lee, brett ratner, et cetera. of all the movies scorsese has made, which poster did they choose to put up on the wall?

 

 

 

 

'gangs of new york'. not 'taxi driver'. not 'raging bull'. not even 'the last waltz'. 'gangs of new york'.

[Guest thebigjig]

While Gangs of New York was unsatisfying, I will always love the movie for Daniel Day Lewis alone. I say with all honesty that his performance as Bill the Butcher was sheer brilliance.

 

The Aviator OWNED all, proving to me that Scorsese still had the chops to direct a big, old fashioned epic.

 

Also, I'm not sure if any of you here have read the Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, but the book actually only deals with Roosevelt's early life and career, ending with McKinley's assassination. I wouldn't be surprised if Scorsese ended the film after the climactic charge up san juan hill. DiCaprio wouldn't be my first choice, but he could pull it off. Young Roosevelt was a small, bare bones young man who only grew in size when he reached middle age.

 

 

[Guest unleashedfury]

It took 7 years of screenwriting, pre-production, filming and post-production to adapt "Howard Hughes: The Untold Story" book into "The Aviator". So the Roosevelt biopic will NEVER come to theaters before 2010. I very much like the book, it's the role of a lifetime for DiCaprio. But the Project I'm most anticipating from Leo is "For Whom the Bell Tolls" since that is my all time favorite book. I wonder how is he going to portray the chracter of Robert Jordan. They better bring an extremely talented director for that.

[The Czech Republic 0]

Hey, godthedog came back.