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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
Dean Martin photos
Martin Scorsese Reviews and Articles

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Sammy Davis, Jr.’s widow sues partners over rights to Candy Man’s estate, man!

January 21st, 2008 by Scott Marks

sammy-says-f-k-you.jpg


Altovise Davis, the widow of the late, great Sammy Davis Jr. is suing Barrett LaRoda and Anthony Francis, a couple of former business partners, over the rights to Sameleh’s life story and management of his well-tarnished legacy.

Associated Press reports that Davis’ widow filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming that the two men misrepresented their show-business credentials and tricked her into signing away some rights to her husband’s estate.

Looks like Alto is still using the same accounting firm that Sam did. When he died in 1990, Sammy left to meet the Man upstairs owing more than $5 million to the Internal Revenue Service, man.

Altovise Davis says she gave her intellectual (and I use the term loosely) rights to Sammy Davis Jr. Enterprises Inc., formed in 2004 by LaRoda and Francis, in exchange for a one-third share in the business.

The two men, who Altovise alleges hid the company’s financial records from her, got as far as negotiating with a studio over a biopic based on two books (Yes I Can and Why Me?) co-authored by friends Judy and Burt Boyar. Together with Ms. Davis, they hold copyright interest in the books. The Boyars Company joined Alto in suing the two men who killed any chance of a big screen Samography by demanding a “substantial” fee and credit as executive producers.

In a court filing, LaRoda and Francis claim Altovise Davis’ royalties more than quadrupled after she signed up with them and that they are responsible in helping to rebuild her husband’s image. They accused Mrs. Davis of having an alcohol problem that was getting in the way.

Everyone know that Sammy loved his gadgets, but how much could he have blown on toys, drugs and a good time to check out leaving a tab like this? And what’s with Alto thinking just because she married into showbiz that it entitles her to become a businesswoman? Or is this another case of the greedy leading the gullible?

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