Director Martin Scorsese is a legend who despite his advanced age, just cannot stop making brilliant films that are not just successes but also add value to cinema. At eighty-one years, Scorsese is awaiting the release of his latest crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon, which brings together two of his long-term collaborators Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio.
The Academy Award-winning director has been in the industry for more than five decades and has made classics such as Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, and Casino. While he is still going strong, the director revealed in a recent interview that he almost gave up on his career after Harvey Weinstein interfered with his dream project Gangs of New York.
Martin Scorsese’s Dream Project
A perpetual student of cinema, Martin Scorsese has constantly pushed the boundaries of mainstream filmmaking and has strived to protect his vision for the past five and a half decades. These years of being in Hollywood, which is notorious for meddling with the creative process have driven Scorsese to the point of quitting multiple times.
This thought came to its peak during the making of his 2002 period crime film Gangs of New York. The film starred an ensemble cast of Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, and John C. Reilly among other prominent actors. The film was based on the book The Gangs of New York by Herbert Asbury and Scorsese was keen on adapting it since the 1970s.
While he had come across the book even before making his first film, Scorsese finally bought the rights for it after he became famous for his films Mean Streets and Taxi Driver. The director spent the next twenty years trying to get the film made through various studios.
The film was passed on by both Universal and Disney and despite the director having a deal with Warner Brothers, they too passed on the film along with 20th Century Fox, MGM, and Paramount Pictures. The project finally ended up at Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax Films, who greenlit the project at a budget of $100 million.
Harvey Weinstein Drove Martin Scorsese To Almost Quit Filmmaking
The troubles of making Gangs of New York did not end with it being greenlit. Martin Scorsese’s crime drama faced immense delays due to creative conflicts between Scorsese and Harvey Weinstein. Filming finally wrapped in March 2001, but post-production of the film was even more arduous as Weinstein reportedly kept demanding cuts and a shorter runtime.
Martin Scorsese has since mentioned how much his experience in Hollywood, especially with Weinstein made him want to quit filmmaking altogether. He said in an interview with GQ,
“I realized that I couldn’t work if I had to make films that way ever again. If that was the only way that I was able to be allowed to make films, then I’d have to stop. Because the results weren’t satisfying. It was at times extremely difficult, and I wouldn’t survive it. I’d be dead. And so I decided it was over, really.”
Scorsese also spoke about how despite the experience he still became excited with the story of The Aviator, which also starred Leonardo DiCaprio. However, Weinstein came to be involved in the picture again along with WB and meddled with the film again. The studios reportedly cut off funding for the film and Scorsese finished it after spending his own money.
“And I was against that; there was a meeting, and I was forced into that position…And there’s no way you’re getting out of it. But the shoot went well, the editing went well until the last couple of weeks of editing. And they came in and did some things that I felt were extremely mean…I just said, ‘I’m no longer making films.’”
The director was again encouraged by the prospect of working on The Departed, a film which again reunited him with DiCaprio. Though he did face some more obstacles during the crime film, he finally received his Best Director Oscar for the film.
Source: GQ
