Well, it looks like Martin Scorsese‘s passion project “Silence” — long expected to be his next film — will have to keep waiting. Another film, which has been in the works for a while, is now on track to shoot later this year.
Deadline reports that Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio will team up for movie number five, “The Wolf Of Wall Street.” The project first surfaced in 2007, with Scorsese at the helm and “Boardwalk Empire” and “The Sopranos” scribe Terence Winter penning the script, with DiCaprio in the leading role. But a studio tug-of-war for the project between Warner Bros. and Paramount eventually stalled things, until the fall of 2009 when it was revealed Ridley Scott was circling the director’s chair. Then, about a year ago, it was reported that the project was back in the hands of Scorsese who was eyeing it for this next movie after “Hugo Cabret.” Indeed, the helmer is now moving forward with the film.
Red Granite Pictures picked up the rights last spring, and it’s a pretty cracker jack tale. Based on the memoir by Jordan Belfort and his experiences on the job in the ’80s and ’90s, “The Wolf of Wall Street” centers on a drug/sex/alcohol addicted New York stockbroker who refuses to cooperate in a large securities fraud case involving corruption on Wall Street, the corporate banking world and mob infiltration. So yeah, that undoubtedly resonates in today’s current economic climate. It should also be noted that Michael Fassbender told the Hollywood Reporter back in January that he had to been talking to Scorsese about a possible film. Was it “The Wolf Of Wall Street”? Maybe a different version of “Silence”? For now, Fassy’s calendar is pretty full, making his participation in this project (if that’s what it is) a tight squeeze, but we’ll see.
Anyway, no distributor is yet on board, but the rights to ‘The Wolf’ will likely be up for grabs at the Cannes Film Festival in May. The film will shoot in August. No word on what happened with “Silence,” but we presume it’s on the backburner for now. That picture, a drama centering on 17th century Jesuit priests, is likely much, much harder to finance and maybe scheduling was a concern for proposed stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Benicio Del Toro and Gael Garcia Bernal (though who knows if they are still attached at this point). But as far as runner-up prizes go, we’re not complaining.
Watch Belfort explain his misdeeds below on CNBCs “Originals” program: