Martin Scorsese to direct Frank Sinatra biopic?
May 11th, 2008 by Scott Marks
Will Tina Sinatra force Marty to sleep with the fishes?
Don’t hold your breath.
May 14th marks the ten year anniversary of Frank Sinatra’s death and his kids are out making noise to peddle repackaged CDs.
My guess is that Tina Sinatra is hoping that fairy tales can come true when she proclaimed Marty the Chosen One. In an interview with the Winnipeg Sun, Mr. Sinatra’s daughter let slip that Scorsese is going to direct a major theatrical bio of the The Voice for Universal.
“Marty has always wanted to do this,” Ms. Sinatra told Sun Media during a phone interview from Los Angeles.
Years ago there was talk of Marty bringing Nick Tosches’ astounding biography Dino to the screen. If memory serves, the “dream” cast went something like this: Tom Hanks as Dean Martin, John Travolta as Frank Sinatra, Wesley Snipes as Sammy Davis, Jr. and Adam Sandler as Joey Bishop.
Forrest Gump as the swinginest borracho ever to swizzle a stick? Better Tony Danza or Eddie Mecca. With plenty of makeup and a camera placed at a safe distance, bloated Travolta could probably have doubled Frank’s later years, but the singer’s rawboned beginnings would have been a stretch. Tommy Davidson is the only man alive capable of doing Sammy justice, not the musclebound Snipes who’ll probably be finishing his jail sentence right around the time shooting commences. The only preordained bit of casting was Happy Gilmore as the Rat’s Pack’s resident nebbish. He has the hair for it, and for once Sandler would have found a part worthy of his limited talent.
This will mark daughter Tina’s third big screen attempt to cash in on her father’s legacy. She produced Sinatra, a 1992 mini-series, as well as Jonathan Demme’s ill-fated (and underrated) remake of The Manchurian Candidate.
Ms. Sinatra admitted that it might be somewhat premature to announce that Marty has signed on for the biopic. When she dubbed her choice for director, “the most prominent Italian-American filmmaker” working today, Sun Media instantly guessed Francis Ford Coppola.
“We adore him,” she said, “but he didn’t step up to it.”
She later confirmed it was Scorsese. “You’ll be reading about it very soon … oh, go ahead and print it, I don’t care!”
With Ashecliffe in production, Marty has four upcoming features on his plate that should take him through 2011: A pair of musical documentaries on the lives and careers of George Harrison and Bob Marley, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, and Silence, a Bergmanesque sounding tale of two Jesuit priests questioning the death of God in seventeenth century Japan.
Will the Sinatra estate allow Marty to paint a “warts and all” portrait? Borrowing a metaphor from her father’s own words, Sinatra said, “He never drove the getaway car” and in the forthcoming picture, “I don’t want him to be driving the getaway car. That would not be fair. But I trust Him (Scorsese) implicitly.”
In God we Trust!
***UPDATE***
In a interview in today’s Los Angeles Times, Tina Sinatra appears “particularly enthusiastic” about Marty’s chances of directing. It’s not a lock. There is also disharmony between Tina and Nancy. The paper reports, “Nancy Sinatra, 67, is against a feature film, even if Oscar-winner Scorsese fulfills his longtime goal of directing it. She fears it would dwell on the negative and ugly moments of her father’s complicated life. She prefers an eight- to 10-hour documentary, which needs to be ‘very, very precise.’”
Links:
Martin Scorsese photos
Frank Sinatra photos
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Martin Scorsese Reviews and Articles
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6 Responses to “Martin Scorsese to direct Frank Sinatra biopic?”
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My two favorite instances of trying to cash in on the Sinatra legacy:
1) The Chicago writer who, late in Frank’s life, collected his advice about women into a book. Great. The guy who tried to kill himself when Ava Gardner dumped him and used to brag about cheating on Mia Farrow in public and in front of her has a book of advice about women. Yeah, I think I’ll fork over $20 for that.
2) The Columbia Records televised tribute not long before he died. Frank looked pretty out of it. Don Rickles came out and did jokes about wife-beating and gangsters. You know, “I”m kidding, Frank, please don’t hurt me” kind of stuff. Then late in the broadcast Bob Dylan came out, performed one of his own songs, said “Thanks, Frank,” and left.
I wonder if Frank found it all so amusing…
My two cents, Matt…
1.) “Yeah, I think I’ll fork over $20 for that.” Actually, I would. Sounds like a hoot and a holler.
2.) “I wonder if Frank found it all so amusing…”
I wonder if Frank knew where he was…
I have that special you speak of on tape. Each time they show him, it appears as though the floor director spun Frank around to render him even more incoherent. Dylan pulls a hope - He walks on, gives ‘em five minutes and says, “Good Night!”
And are you nuts? A book of Frank’s advice on how to man-handle broads? This needs to be studied at any cost!
I’ll have more to say on Frank in a couple of days to commemorate the anniversary of his death, Jilly.
Oh, pallie… where to begin?
Another Sinatra biopic? Directed by Marty? I’ll give it a gander. I just wish Marty would stop with the music documentaries - make movies, will ya?
I’m guessing Nancy with the laughing face will continue to defend her daddy and won’t let Tina show all the sordid details - Mafia, JFK, Monroe, the numerous fights in the desert, etc.
The Forrest Gump comment was dead-on. I can’t think of anyone worthy to play Dino. Who was rumored to play Jerry Lewis - Sean Hayes? Sammy Petrillo?
Adam Sandler and Tommy Davidson would be masterful in the Bishop and Sammy roles… however, Wayne Brady is touring right now with a tribute to Sammy and he might have the chops to pull it off.
Wayne’s show is due to hit my hometown of Fort Wayne 5/16/08 and I’m going to see the show. I’ll give you my recommendation soon after.
“The Way You Wear Your Hat” by Bill Zehme is an interesting read. Bill takes actual quotes from Sinatra (all he could extract from an aging Blue Eyes) and bases chapters around them. The book is worth it for the quotes alone:
BZ: What do you do when a woman cries?
FS: I usually cry with her.
=LAUGH TRACK=
BZ: How can a man and a woman survive divorce?
FS: Try to remain friends if you can.
=LAUGH TRACK “Awwwwww”=
BZ: Tipping as an art form: The final word
FS: Just duke ‘em, for Chrissakes
=APPLAUSE=
Finally, that Sinatra 80th TV special was the lowest of the low.
Roseanne Barr comparing herself to Frank, Paula Abdul dancing as a “tribute”, Paul Reiser showing different Sinatra hat shots and adding dumb witticisms, Hootie & The Blowfish singing “The Lady Is A Tramp”.
The best/worst was Salt-N-Peppa singing “Whatta Man” to Frank. The look of disorientation, utter surprise, and mild nausea on everyone in the Sinatra party was unintentionally hilarious.
At the end of the show, all assembled sang “NY NY” and Sinatra in a rumored $2500 hairpiece (it was glowing) was led to center stage by Springsteen and Tony Bennett, then at the height of his MTV resurgence.
Sinatra gruffly but playfully refused to take Bennett’s arm at first - seems the master was a wee bit jealous of Mr. Bennedetto
Frank sung the last note of “NY NY” and looked tired and winded after that. He grabbed a magnum of champagne and toasted the crowd - ever the swinger to the end. Fade to commercial.
In his younger days, Joe Mantegna made a good Dino.
You look more like Sammy then Wayne Brady! You must be starved for entertainment in Ft. Wayne. Why would you subject yourself to such dreck? That’s like me driving to LA to see Waddington & Wolf.
I need to reexamine the Paula Abdul “tribute.”
Great stuff, Rob!
Jim Carrey was rumored to play Jerry. God help us all! Do we really need another Rat Pack movie after the HBO movie? I think not…