Martin Scorsese’s gearing up to start production on his adaptation of David Grann‘s Killers of the Flower Moon, but since we’re in the thick of awards season now, the legendary director sat down with the New York Times to pump up The Irishman. In the process, he also chatted about many other subjects, including the whole comic book movie mess that he found himself in, which most recently resulted in his daughter wrapping Marty’s Christmas presents in Marvel-themed paper. All of his talk of the MCU being “theme park”-esque landed just prior to Joker hitting theaters for Warner Bros. Scorsese was once attached to the film as a producer, and although he pulled out of the movie, he’s had nothing bad to say about the the studios’ DC comic adaptations. In regards to Joker, he actually has nothing to say at all because he hasn’t seen the movie.
Why hasn’t Scorsese viewed the origin story of Arthur Fleck, who would one day go on to be the greatest supervillain of Gotham? Well, he’s been busy, but also, he feels like he’s seen enough already, given that the movie draws heavily from pictures that he’s helmed, including Taxi Driver Means Streets. Quite simply, Scorsese told the NY Times, “I saw clips of it. I know it. So it’s like, why do I need to [see it]? I get it. It’s fine.”
Fair enough. The Wolf of Wall Street director also told the newspaper why he recently wanted to meet with Disney, and the reason is not controversial. Yes, Bob Iger wants to meet with Scorsese to discuss his “nasty” remarks about Marvel Studios movies being “not cinema,” which might get in the way of Marty’s original goal: a boost for his Film Foundation for preservation and education in many cinematic realms. “Then all this came up,” Scorsese told the NY Times. “So, we’ll have a lot to talk about.” For sure.
One more topic of interest came up, and that would be Scorsese admitting that the experience of finishing 2004’s The Aviator made him contemplate retirement. Really:
“The last two weeks of editing and mixing The Aviator, I said if this is the way you have to make films then I’m not going to do it anymore. It’s like being in a bunker and you’re firing out in all directions. You begin to realize you’re not speaking the same language anymore, so you can’t make pictures anymore.”
Fortunately, he recovered, and Scorsese went on to work with Leonardo DiCaprio again. And he’ll do it yet again with Killers of the Flower Moon, which will star the muse as Ernest Burkhart, a not so wonderful guy in the grand scheme of the Osage Murders. By the way, if you haven’t read Grann’s book, you should do so very soon. At the very least, listen to Vince Mancini’s podcast episode with the author himself, and also read the rest of Scorsese’s NY Times interview here.
(Via New York Times)
