I’ve followed what I’ve dubbed the “Scorsese Stakes” here at Movie Buzzers for well over a year and a half. What this has entailed is keeping a running list of all the films that Martin Scorsese is attached to direct or films that he has personally expressed interest in directing after Hugo. The list approached ten different projects before Scorsese announced that he would direct The Wolf of Wall Street next, which is currently shooting. And with other projects like The Comedian and The Gambler finding other directors, it looked like Scorsese’s list of “next projects” was finally being whittled down to a manageable size for the master director, who turns seventy later this year.
But it seems that he’s not whittling his list down quickly enough: of all the films on the list, Scorsese has expressed interest in directing an adaption of the Shusaku Endo novel Silence, which is about 17th century Jesuit monks who brought Christianity to Japan, for the longest time: he first agreed to direct the film in 1990 for Cecchi Gori Pictures, and it has been referred to as Scorsese’s “next film” since filming wrapped on 2004’s The Aviator. But since 2004 he has kept putting the film off, and has had to pay Cecchi Gori a significant fee to delay the production every time he had decided to direct another film instead.
According to TMZ, Cecchi Gori isn’t taking it anymore. The studio has filed a lawsuit against Scorsese, who they claimed paid his delay fees for The Departed and Shutter Island, but not for Hugo. According to the report, “The suit alleges Scorsese owes Cecchi a flat fee of $1.5 million, plus the value of his producer title on Hugo … PLUS 20% of his back-end on Hugo — which you gotta figure is considerable since it was nominated for 11 Oscars and won 5.” Cecchi Gori is also expecting a similar deal for The Wolf of Wall Street and any other film Scorsese makes before he finally films Silence.
The Hugo money probably isn’t as significant as TMZ indicates — for all its critical acclaim, Hugo was an extremely expensive movie and didn’t do blockbuster numbers, so it’s likely Scorsese didn’t make much money from it.
While I’ve always wanted to see Scorsese make Silence — it’s been rumored that Daniel Day-Lewis and Benicio del Toro are Scorsese’s favorites for the lead roles — I wonder if this lawsuit will put an end to that project. It would be a shame, especially since Scorsese has always spoke passionately about the project in interviews… though I guess not passionate enough to, you know, film the damn thing.
But let this be a lesson to you all: don’t put too much on your plate!
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