Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese have collaborated on a number of projects together as actor and director. Beginning their partnership with Gangs of New York, the duo went on to work on films such as The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island, The Wolf of Wall Street, and the recent Killers of the Flower Moon. The duo are also rumored to collaborate again on a Frank Sinatra biopic.
While the two have worked together on many projects, they have also developed projects that have never seen the light of day. One of those was apparently a biographical drama on Alexander, The Great. The two never got to make it, but the duo may have no regrets about it as Colin Farrell’s version of the film ended up almost costing the actor his career.
Leonardo DiCaprio And Martin Scorsese Almost Developed A Movie On Alexander
Leonardo DiCaprio has worked with Martin Scorsese on many projects that have seen the light of day and have received positive responses. Scorsese won his first Oscar for Best Director with The Departed, which starred DiCaprio along with Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson. The actor has been nominated for an Oscar twice while starring in a Scorsese film.
The two share a wonderful working relationship that has spanned decades and have even closely developed multiple projects. DiCaprio revealed during the release of The Aviator that the two were also interested in developing a film based on Alexander, the Great. He said that both of them were interested in historical figures and their biographies and had received a screenplay that they were trying to develop.
In an interview with Black Film, DiCaprio mentioned that as they were working on both, the script for the Howard Hughes biopic progressed faster and hence the film got made. By then, Oliver Stone had already made a film with Colin Farrell. DiCaprio said,
“Alexander The Great was also, like I said before, it’s one of those things where Scorsese and I just share the same taste in similar things. We were both fascinated with Alexander The Great as well as Howard Hughes…It just happened to be that this script and the project were way further advanced in the development stage than the script that landed in our lap from Alexander and we wanted to go forth – we had an intention at one time of doing them both, but you don’t get everything you want all the time.”
DiCaprio also mentioned that he looked for other filmmakers to take on the mantle while Martin Scorsese was busy with The Aviator, such as Baz Luhrmann. However, Oliver Stone beat them to it.
Colin Farrell’s Alexander Was A Critical And Commercial Disaster
While it is not confirmed whether it was the same project, Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese seemed to be too late to get their Alexander film made as JFK director Oliver Stone was way ahead of them. DiCaprio mentioned to Black Film that it was just how Hollywood worked and that many were developing similar topics at the same time. He said,
“There was, a lot of people were toying with it, that’s the way it is in the business, that an idea pops up and all of a sudden it’s a piranha feeding frenzy. Oliver got his off before anybody else’s.”
However, DiCaprio may not have any regrets about giving it up as the resulting film Alexander ended up being a critical and commercial failure. The Colin Farrell starrer was criticized for its historical inaccuracies and long runtime and only earned $167 million against a $150 million budget (via The Numbers).
Farrell mentioned in a roundtable with THR that the film’s failure made him rethink everything as an actor as he was completely sure that it would fetch him an Oscar nomination. He said,
“When I say ‘expectation,’ we all had our tuxedos ready [for awards shows]. I’m not even joking. We were all like, ‘Right, lads, we’re off to the Oscars. This is a sure thing.’ And then it came out. The reviews came out, and I remember someone going, ‘Oh God, it’s not good’…This is not to apologize — I was a young man — but Alexander really made me go, ‘I don’t know.’ And what I had to do was plug back into the Colin that went into an acting class when he was 17.”
Despite starring stalwarts such as Angelina Jolie, Colin Farrell, Val Kilmer, and Anthony Hopkins, and Oliver Stone attached to the film, it seemed to have lost its way during the making.
Alexander The Great is currently streaming on Apple TV+.
