Martin Scorsese's always got a kick out of Frank Sinatra - he's been circling a biopic project for years - but he is now signed up to direct Sinatra, the story of the acclaimed singer and actor's life. And they can't take that away from him.
The film's set to be written by Field of Dream****s' Phil Alden Robinson, and we're told that it will be an "unconventional biopic" that will cover all phases of the singer's life. And there's a lot there to cover: the boy from Hoboken, New Jersey, famously romanced half of Hollywood while finding love and marriage with Ava Gardner and later Mia Farrow (among others), hung with Kennedy, allegedly had ties to the mafia - oh, and was one of the most talented singers in history (with a not-to-be-sniffed-at acting ability too). You might say he did it his way, but we wouldn't because that would be a pun too far.
The project's taken a long time to come together because of the pressures of getting agreement from the Sinatra estate and those holding the recording rights to his music. It's expected that recordings of Sinatra's distinctive singing voice will be used, meaning that the person playing the role won't have to sing much. Yes, that leaves the way open for Scorsese favourite Leonardo DiCaprio to take the starring role - so the best may be yet to come for that particular actor/director pairing.
Frank's daughter Tina Sinatra said of the plan, "My father had great admiration for the talent of the people he chose to work with, and the talented people who worked with my father had great admiration for him. It is personally pleasing to me that this paradigm continues with Marty Scorsese at the helm of the Sinatra film."
So whadya think: will this fly us to the moon? Will poor ol' Marty be up until the wee small hours of the morning trying to get it into just one film? Or will it be a very good year? And will this kill off Brett Ratner's Mr S.: My Life With Frank take on Sinatra's life?