Paul Schrader & Martin Scorsese Tried To Mount A 'Tokyo Underworld' Show For HBO

First things first. The Writers Guild Of America (WGA) have released their nominations for Best Original and Best Adapted Screenplay and somehow Paul Schrader—the filmmaker and legendary screenwriter behind “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull,” and “The Last Temptation of Christ“— was not nominated for his screenplay for “First Reformed” (which was WGA eligible). This flub is a crime (“Green Book” did receive a nod), get bent, and Academy, please do not screw this up.

As suggested, Schrader’s screenwriting career is deeply intertwined with the directing career of frequent collaborator Martin Scorsese. Over the years, Schrader wrote or co-wrote screenplays for four Scorsese films including “Bringing Out the Dead” (1999).

READ MORE: The Essentials: The Directorial Career Of Paul Schrader

That was meant to be their final collaboration, or at least so said Schrader in 2016 during press for “Dog Eat Dog” where he was asked and answered the duo would likely never work together again.

“We did the four together. I could tell on that final film that it would be the last one because I was acting too much like the director,” he told Culture Trip at the time. “There can be only one director. I could feel the friction, and afterward, I said ‘I think four is enough.’”

READ MORE: Paul Schrader’s ‘First Reformed’ Is A Gripping Spiritual Riff On ‘Taxi Driver’ [Review]

Anyhow, this WGA snub is a good excuse to dive into an interview I missed this summer and just caught my eye (yes, I know it’s not “new”): perhaps Schrader and Scorsese forgot that they had actually tried a few years previous to collaborate again.

Evidently, Schrader and Scorsese had attempted to put an HBO show together. “Scorsese and I tried to do something 10 years ago [on television],” Schrader told Polygon this summer. “We wanted to do a series about crime and post-war Tokyo. The series was called ‘Tokyo Underworld.’ I wrote a script, I wrote a Bible, Marty was riding high, then HBO was also interested [in] “Boardwalk Empire.” And so everyone thought it was going to go. Then, nope, it didn’t go.”

LISTEN: Paul Schrader & Sofia Coppola Discuss ‘First Reformed’ And How To Thrive In Today’s Indie Film Scene

“Boardwalk Empire” started in 2010, so this was obviously sometimes around 2009. A “Tokyo Underworld,” show would have meant three HBO shows for Scorsese—”Vinyl” debuted in 2016, but was panned and only lived for one season (a second season was greenlit, a new showrunner was brought on board, but the series was ultimately canceled).

Schrader’s interests in Japanese culture wouldn’t be just cultural tourism, he’s been interested in the country for decades. His first produced screenplay was 1974’a “The Yakuza“— a neo-noir gangster set in the Tokyo’s crime underworld— and his 1985 directorial effort, “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters,” both projects greatly acclaimed and considered something like cinephile classics now.

Scorsese’s relationship with HBO may be done for now, “Vinyl,” ended rather poorly, and given “Tokyo Underworld,” is ten years past, one assumes that project is dead and gone, but it’s a fascinating “what if.” Perhaps the gods of rapacious Peak TV consumption might still consider it to fill some content slot one day.

In the meantime, dear Academy, nominate Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed” for Best Original Screenplay, welcome to my round-about Ted Talk.