A Hawaii-set crime thriller, directed by Martin Scorsese and featuring an all-star cast, will see the filmmaker return to the mobster genre once again.
Reports of a new Martin Scorsese project have surfaced, and it looks as though the filmmaker is making a crime caper. According to Deadline, the veteran director will add a new movie about mobsters to a body of work that already includes Goodfellas, Gangs Of New York, Casino, The Departed and The Irishman.
This time around, Hawaii is the location, and Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson, stars of Jungle Cruise, and A24’s upcoming MMA drama, The Smashing Machine, reportedly brought the project to regular collaborators Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio. The pair must have liked what they heard because the whole package of story, director and stars is now being shopped around Hollywood and won’t be short of an interested party or two, we’d imagine.
Nick Bilton, writer on several episodes of TV’s The Idol is responsible for the script, which is “set in turbulent 1960s and 1970s Hawaii” and is said to be about a “charismatic mob boss” in a turf war with rival gangs. The unique selling point being that the turf is an island paradise rather than, say, a few city blocks in New York. (We’d wager at least £1.25 that it’ll be Dwayne Johnson cast as the charismatic mob boss, though Emily Blunt may be an outside bet.)
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Like Goodfellas and several other movies in the Scorsese canon, this latest film is said to be based on a true story. Assuming it happens, it’ll see Dwayne Johnson move into more serious dramatic fare; his filmography over the last decade has been largely filled with action and action comedies.
With his upcoming leading turn in A24’s The Smashing Machine, Johnson seems to be angling for a partial reinvention of his movie star persona after a difficult few years in which his image has been somewhat dented. There was his reported power play with DC top brass during the production of Black Adam, and allegations that he sometimes gives people bottles of urine on set because he doesn’t have time to go to the toilet. Perhaps a collaboration with Martin Scorsese is just what The Rock needs to start cooking again.
We’ll bring you more on this one as we hear it.
