Scorsese, DiCaprio ganging up on Hughes
January 25th, 2002
From VARIETYs Michael Fleming:
Martin Scorsese intends to get a jump on the Howard Hughes biopic race and is poised to direct his GANGS OF NEW YORK star Leonardo DiCaprio in the project. Production on the picture, which is on the hunt for financing, would start in the fall. GLADIATOR co-scribe John Logan has written the script. DiCaprio controls the project with director Michael Mann, and both will serve as producers.
Scorsese's Hughes picture faces direct competition from MEMENTO director Christopher Nolan's Hughes project, starring Jim Carrey, which recently took root at Castle Rock. While Nolan is ringing up the accolades for MEMENTO, he's only just starting on the Hughes adaptation. Many expected the Scorsese-DiCaprio tandem to figure prominently in a biopic of Alexander the Great, but Scorsese apparently sparked to both the Hughes script and the chance to direct DiCaprio again. The actor and Mann hatched the project together and have been shaping it for several years; they originally set it up at New Line, which put it in turnaround last year after production president Michael De Luca lost his job at the studio. DiCaprio and Mann are expected to move quickly to secure financing and a start date for a film focusing on the formative Hughes years, when he was a dashing aviator and movie mogul. It ends in the early 1950s, long before Hughes became a reclusive germophobe. While Scorsese now is poised to direct back-to-back DiCaprio vehicles, Mann, too, has long tried to direct the star. The first attempt was a James Dean biopic that Mann put aside when he teamed Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in HEAT. By all accounts, Mann intended to direct DiCaprio in the Hughes film, but likely wanted a breather from the bio genre after tackling THE INSIDER and ALI back to back.
(Source: Variety)
Martin Scorsese intends to get a jump on the Howard Hughes biopic race and is poised to direct his GANGS OF NEW YORK star Leonardo DiCaprio in the project. Production on the picture, which is on the hunt for financing, would start in the fall. GLADIATOR co-scribe John Logan has written the script. DiCaprio controls the project with director Michael Mann, and both will serve as producers.
Scorsese's Hughes picture faces direct competition from MEMENTO director Christopher Nolan's Hughes project, starring Jim Carrey, which recently took root at Castle Rock. While Nolan is ringing up the accolades for MEMENTO, he's only just starting on the Hughes adaptation. Many expected the Scorsese-DiCaprio tandem to figure prominently in a biopic of Alexander the Great, but Scorsese apparently sparked to both the Hughes script and the chance to direct DiCaprio again. The actor and Mann hatched the project together and have been shaping it for several years; they originally set it up at New Line, which put it in turnaround last year after production president Michael De Luca lost his job at the studio. DiCaprio and Mann are expected to move quickly to secure financing and a start date for a film focusing on the formative Hughes years, when he was a dashing aviator and movie mogul. It ends in the early 1950s, long before Hughes became a reclusive germophobe. While Scorsese now is poised to direct back-to-back DiCaprio vehicles, Mann, too, has long tried to direct the star. The first attempt was a James Dean biopic that Mann put aside when he teamed Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in HEAT. By all accounts, Mann intended to direct DiCaprio in the Hughes film, but likely wanted a breather from the bio genre after tackling THE INSIDER and ALI back to back.
(Source: Variety)
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