Martin Scorsese is making his next film, starring Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson, for 20th Century Studios. More here.
A veteran director of mob movies he may be, but Martin Scorsese isn’t yet done making films about charasmatic criminals. Set to add to a body of work that already includes Goodfellas, Gangs Of New York, Casino, The Departed and The Irishman, the filmmaker’s next project will be a Hawaii-set crime thriller that stars Emily Blunt, Dwayne Johnson and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Naturally, interest is high for the film, with Netflix said to be the frontrunner at one stage. But it looks like the Silicon Valley streamer has once again been trumped by a traditional movie studio when it comes to securing a major project. If we were to speculate, we’d be wondering just how important the guarantee of a proper theatrical run for the project was in making up the mind of Scorsese and company.
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.
One of the really interesting developing points here is the central involvement of Dwayne Johnson, who in the wake of ‘bottlegate' and a string of underwhelming generic action roles, seems to putting everything into a rather absorbing career swerve.
His performance in A24’s upcoming MMA drama The Smashing Machine is said to be something of a creative risk, with the film’s tone avoiding the standard route of most fact-based dramas, but into something more gonzo. Then there’s this project: facing off against a CGI skyscraper is one thing; going toe-to-toe with Leonardo DiCaprio in a Martin Scorsese epic is another bout entirely.
Johnson should be commended for taking on such a mighty challenge, though, given his many talents. And it’s not like he’ll be asking Leo to hold his bottled erm, ‘water’, we’d imagine. The rest of the synopsis (thanks, The Hollywood Reporter) that we’ve seen confirms our suspicions that Johnson will indeed play the ‘charismatic mob boss’. See below:
‘The film follows an aspiring and charismatic mob boss engaged in a brutal and bloody war with rival crime syndicates and mainland corporations to wrest absolute control of the island’s underworld in order to preserve his ancestral land.’
We’ll bring you more on this one as we hear it.
