Martin Scorsese's unrealized projects

This sandbox is in the article namespace. Either move this page into your userspace, or remove the {{User sandbox}} template.

The following is a list of unproduced Martin Scorsese projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American film director Martin Scorsese has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these productions fell in development hell or were cancelled.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

1960s

Jesus in New York

Scorsese said that in the 1960s, he had an idea for a movie about Jesus but set in the Lower East Side. The film was to have been shot in black and white with the crucifixion filmed on the West Side docks.^[6]

1970s

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

In the 1970s, Scorsese attempted to direct a film adaptation of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee with Marlon Brando slated to star.^[7]

1990s

Theodora and Justinian

In the early 1990s, Scorsese was to direct a movie about Theodora and Justinian for Universal Pictures with the screenplay written by Gore Vidal.^[8]

Dino

In 1992, Scorsese acquired the film adaptation rights to Nick Tosches's biography about Dean Martin titled Dino.^[9] Scorsese had Tom Hanks in mind to portray Martin.^[10] The screenplay was written by Nicholas Pileggi.^[11][12] In 2004, Scorsese confirmed that he gave up on the project.^[13][14]

Gershwin

In 1993, it was reported that Scorsese was to direct a biopic about the life of composer George Gershwin with Robert De Niro and Richard Dreyfuss attached to star and the screenplay written by John Guare.^[15]

References

1. Lyttelton, Oliver (January 17, 2017). "Martin Scorsese: 10 Movies He's Considered Making...But We'll Probably Never See". Yahoo! News. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
2. Sherlock, Ben (May 16, 2020). "10 Movies Martin Scorsese Almost Directed". Screen Rant. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
3. taylor, Tom (April 5, 2022). "Five unrealised Martin Scorsese films we'd love to see come to fruition". Far Out Magazine. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
4. L, Nick (April 3, 2022). "5 of Martin Scorsese's Most Interesting-Sounding Unmade Projects". Collider. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
5. Scott, Sam (March 8, 2021). "Martin Scorsese Movies We'll Never Get To See". Looper. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
6. Nordine, Michael (January 5, 2017). "Martin Scorsese Reveals Why He Never Made His Movie About Jesus in New York". IndieWire. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
7. Grist, L. (2000). The Films of Martin Scorsese, 1963-77: Authorship and Context. Springer. ISBN 9780230286146.page 124
8. Dutka, Elaine (July 3, 1994). "Hey, Maybe Leslie Nielsen Could Star in the Next Gore Vidal Script". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
9. "Scorsese Betrays Dino". Military.com. May 14, 2009. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
10. Archerd, Army (July 30, 1998). "Dean Martin bio waits for Hanks". Variety. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
11. "Stax takes an in depth look at Scorsese's DINO project". Ain't It Cool News. April 27, 1999. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
12. Stax (May 29, 2003). "The Stax Report: Script Review of Dino". IGN. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
13. Szymanski, Mike (December 21, 2004). "Scorsese's Dean Martin story will never be seen". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
14. Szymanski, Mike (December 25, 2004). "SCORSESE GIVES UP ON DINO PROJECT". News & Record. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
15. "GERSHWIN FILM BIO WILL IGNORE GOSSIP". Orlando Sentinel. August 6, 1993. Retrieved September 9, 2022.