Martin Scorsese’s history with the Academy Awards hasn’t always been cheerful, but the veteran filmmaker managed to grab one for The Departed in 2007. The Boston-set crime thriller exposed the many institutional problems with crime fighting. By the end of the film, all the ‘rats’ end up dead, sending a clear message about the film’s themes to the viewers. However, Warner Bros. wasn’t exactly thrilled that Scorsese killed off the stars of the film.
In the film, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Billy Costigan and Matt Damon’s Colin Sullivan were working as moles in the Irish mob and the Massachusetts State Police respectively. Both stars were assets to WB if the movie were ever made into a franchise, but Scorsese had very different plans for them.
Warner Bros. Was Unhappy With Martin Scorsese’s Ending For The Departed
Warner Bros. had intentions to squeeze more money out of the Oscar-winning crime film, The Departed. With all the star power at their hand, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg, the studio thought that they could just get them to do more films. However, the studio asked the wrong guy to change his planned ending for the film to set its dream in motion.
WB was keen that DiCaprio and Damon live at the end of the film, but Martin Scorsese had already planned the climax that would align with the many themes of The Departed. The Taxi Driver director was not willing to go along with the studio-approved ending for the film. He defied the wishes of the WB execs and went ahead with his climax anyway, leading to a strained relationship between him and the studio.
Scorsese opened up about how WB pressed for a franchise in an interview with GQ. He shared that the execs were pretty sad when they walked out of the premiere. The Goodfellas director shared that it was his cue that he couldn’t work with the studio anymore. Scorsese shared with GQ:
“What they wanted was a franchise. It wasn’t about a moral issue of a person living or dying. And then the studio guys walked out and they were very sad, because they just didn’t want that movie. They wanted the franchise. Which means: I can’t work here any more.”
Fans of the Raging Bull director know that he is not a man to give up his artistic integrity for studio wishes. Nonetheless, the film was a big boost for WB that year with the Oscar wins for Best Picture and Best Director.
Martin Scorsese Ended His Decades-Long Relationship With WB After The Departed
Martin Scorsese’s first critical and commercial success, Mean Streets, was distributed by Warner Bros. in 1973. He worked with the studio in films like Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, After Hours, Goodfellas, and The Aviator. However, the creative differences in The Departed ended that decades-long relationship forever.
Scorsese’s later films were mostly produced by Paramount Pictures, including Shutter Island and The Wolf of Wall Street. He teamed up with Netflix in 2019 to create another gangster epic, The Irishman. Scorsese’s latest Oscar-nominated film, Killers of the Flower Moon, was co-produced by Paramount and AppleTV+.
The Departed is now available for streaming on AppleTV.
