MOVIE NEWS – Martin Scorsese’s next two films have been postponed indefinitely…

Martin Scorsese would have shot two films in a row. But they were suddenly postponed. Scorsese is one of the most respected and influential filmmakers of all time. He recently received his tenth Oscar nomination for Best Director for 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon. His next two films would be personal projects that the director had been working on for some time: a Frank Sinatra biopic and an adaptation of Shūsaku Endō’s 1973 novel The Life of Jesus. Both projects seem to have hit a major roadblock.

According to Variety, Scorsese had planned to shoot The Life of Jesus and the Frank Sinatra biopic back-to-back starting this year, but both projects have since been postponed indefinitely. The Life of Jesus, which would have been the first to be filmed, would have examined the divine and human form of Christ.

The Life of Jesus was slated to be independently financed and is reportedly still in development.

Meanwhile, the situation is different with the Frank Sinatra biopic. Because the crew members hired for the November start date were told that the date was cancelled, and they have not been given a new one since then. The Sinatra biopic reportedly depends on the approval of Tina Sinatra, Frank Sinatra’s daughter and owner of the estate. Scorsese’s rumoured biopic focuses on the breakup of Sinatra’s first marriage to Nancy Barbato, Tina’s mother, and his highly publicized marriage to Hollywood icon Ava Gardner. It’s not the first time Scorsese has clashed with the Sinatra legacy. Both projects are currently on hold indefinitely.

Martin Scorsese’s story with Frank Sinatra and The Life of Jesus

Martin Scorsese has been attached to a Frank Sinatra biopic since the 2000s but has often clashed with Sinatra’s legacy, as early drafts of Scorsese’s Sinatra biopic focused on the icon’s alleged mob ties. In 2017, after nearly twenty years of development, Scorsese said the project was dead. It looked like director Bill Condon was making a Frank Sinatra biopic series for a while, but there’s been no word on that since the 2021 announcement. In April 2024, Scorsese’s Sinatra biopic resurfaced: he chose Leonardo DiCaprio for the role of Frank Sinatra and Jennifer Lawrence for Ava Gardner. However, Frank Sinatra’s daughter, Nancy Sinatra, disapproved of the casting.

The Life of Jesus is a project that seemed to come very suddenly. During the Drowned Flowers press tour, Scorsese said he would adapt the novel and wanted to focus on the core teachings of Jesus while moving away from the “negative stigma” often associated with religious faith. Scorsese has dealt with his Catholic upbringing in several films, and The Life of Jesus is apparently the third part of a thematic trilogy that also includes 1988’s The Last Temptation of Christ and 2016’s Silence, the latter based on another Shūsaku Endō novel.

In addition to the Frank Sinatra biopic and The Life of Jesus, Scorsese is also working on an adaptation of The Wager, based on the 2023 non-fiction novel of the same name. It was written by David Grann, who also wrote the novel version of Killers of the Flower Moon. The story will focus on the Wager Rebellion of 1741 and will see Scorsese and DiCaprio team up again. With no word on this project, it’s unknown what the future holds for the 81-year-old director, but probably every movie buff is excited about his next film. (Whatever it will be…)

Source: Variety