Martin Scorsese Frank Sinatra Biopic And Life Of Jesus Movie Indefinitely Postponed

Martin Scorsese

by Jordan King |
Updated on

After bagging 10 Oscar nominations for last year's monumental three-plus-hour epic Killers Of The Flower Moon, you'd be forgiven for thinking that when Martin Scorsese wants to make a movie, that movie just gets made. But after revealing plans for religious picture The Life Of Jesus last year, and then the realisation of a long-planned Frank Sinatra biopic with Leonardo DiCaprio earlier this year, Marty's hopes to shoot both projects back-to-back have been put on hold. Per Variety's reporting, neither project will be setting cameras rolling in 2024 any more, and new production plans are yet to be confirmed.

Having already made one ripping biblical yarn in the shape of The Last Temptation Of Christ, Scorsese had hoped to acquiesce to the Pope's call for more Christianity centred art with an adaptation of Shūsaku Endō’s 1973 novel The Life Of Jesus. This would've been Scorsese's second Endō adaptation following 2016's Silence, with that movie's co-lead Andrew Garfield reportedly set to play a key role here, too. Originally planned to shoot in Israel, Italy, and Egypt sometime this year, the movie — which Scorsese intends to personally finance himself — remains in development according to Variety, though without a new production schedule in place.

As for Scorsese's Sinatra movie, which had reportedly been set to see DiCaprio take on the role of Old Blue Eyes opposite Jennifer Lawrence as Sinatra's second wife Ava Gardner and would've centred around the pair's tumultuous relationship, the situation is a little more complex. Originally announced way back in 2009, this passion project for Scorsese — whose love of music is well documented both in his narrative films' soundtracks and his work on docs like The Last Waltz and Rolling Thunder Revue — has still yet to officially confirm/secure the blessing of Sinatra's family estate. And, given the delicate time in Sinatra's life Marty's film would be covering, there's no guarantee such blessing would be granted, placing the project in an already precarious position. As Variety note, production on the movie had actually been set to get underway as early as November of this year, but those involved with the picture were told in mid-August that those plans had been scrapped, also with no present plans to reschedule.

Though Scorsese's Cape Fear series retooling with Steven Spielberg is still in the pipeline over at Apple TV+, the fate of the legendary auteur's two cinematic white whales remains up in the air. Whether they'll be resurrected in the end, or if Marty will end up having to just say "That's life!" and move on, only time will tell. But whatever Martin Scorsese does do next, you can bet we'll be watching.

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