Marty Kickin' it on Labor Day Weekend. pic.twitter.com/A7mkwIpTZr
— Midnight Marauder (@midmarauder) September 5, 2015
I just couldn’t help writing about this photo because this is exactly what everyone should be doing right now. This photo of Martin Scorsese has been floating around, just like Marty, all weekend long. His graphic designer buddy tweeted the pic, and I gave it a chuckle before noticing the news about Scorsese’s short film meeting some trouble. It appears that Marty’s short film, The Audition, was slated to make a huge splash at the Venice Film Festival. Scorsese directs and stars, and Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt each made $13 million for two days of filming. The entire production — for a short film — cost $71 million! This sounds like a total vanity project, but something went wrong, and the film was not ready for a Venice screening. Scorsese reportedly pulled out only a week ago:
Due to “technical problems” the big-budget short will not be in Venice. One of the more anticipated screenings of the Venice Film Festival has been canceled this year. Martin Scorsese’s short film The Audition will not debut at the festival, as previously planned.
The festival said in a statement: “We have just been informed by the production that due to unexpected technical problems the film could not be here in time.”
Scorsese stars in the film, which has him pitting his frequent collaborators Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro against each other for a leading role in an upcoming film. Brad Pitt also makes an appearance. Oscar-nominated writer Terence Winter penned the script.
Venice festivalgoers were looking forward to potential appearances by the Academy Award-winning director and actors. The film’s inclusion in the world’s oldest film festival had been seen as controversial by some, as it was produced to promote the opening of Melco-Crown’s $2.3 billion Macau Studio City and the existing Manila City of Dreams resorts and casinos.
[From Hollywood Reporter]
So it sounds like Scorsese simply couldn’t finish on time, and the movie was a controversial entry anyway. Venice director Alberto Barbera tried to reassure everyone that “It’s a Scorsese film, not a commercial,” but it sounds a little sketchy. The casino fully funded the film even though it never appears on screen. Kinda weird, but I think most things Leo touches these days are a little sketchy.
Anyway, I admit that this post was mostly an excuse to write about Marty’s eyebrows floating atop a donut-shaped float in a pool. And everyone should breathe a sigh of relief that Leo and his posse of bikini babes isn’t hanging out in the background. Happy Labor Day from Marty, everyone.
Photos courtesy of WENN
I, for one, am disappointed Leo is NOT hanging out in the background with his gaggle of Victoria Secret models.
Lol
Love him.
$70M for a short!!!!??!!!
I seriously despair for all the indie filmmakers.
I just watched Andrew Tiernan talking about this and must say, I despair along with you. BTW: he also talked about the cost of PR. Did you know the kind of blanket PR employed by column inch actors is about £4k PER WEEK? I almost fainted.
On a lighter note, and just because I can: DOUGHNUT, DOUGHNUT, DOUGHNUT.
Sadly I do. I worked in celeb PR and now I’m in the film industry and some of the crazy sums thrown around at one end of the scale are truly shocking compared to the other side of the scale.
It still shocks me though.
On that note, if you can get up to London, go to the Raindance film festival. Starts end of September. Raindance also ran BIFA (British Independent Film Awards)…..singlehandedly holding up the independent British Film industry. They’ve had some amazing films over the years.
The founder, Elliot, loves to tell the tale of how MEET THE PARENTS was discovered as a short at Raindance, bought and re-imagined into the mega-hit it turned into starring Ben Stiller.
It’s an aspect of the Eton mafia story I hadn’t considered, alongside the various austerity funding cuts for post-grad study. And that’s how Tiernan was contextualising it.
Brother’s house is always open and I’m not exactly overrrun with work at the moment, so you know what? I might well get up for Raindance. Good idea!
On an even lighter note: DONUT, DONUT, DONUT.
@mimif, perfect day here to go in search of cider donuts.
I think not @ MIMIF…..DOUGHNUT! DOUGHNUT!! DOUGHNUT!!!
Sixer: I saw what I still consider the best horror film at one of their festivals. A Russian film called NIGHTWATCH. The sequel, DAYWATCH, wasn’t as good, but by the time the sequel was made, the director had gone Hollywood having been hired to direct WANTED.
Also, did you know that Chris Nolan, Guy Ritchie all had their starts at Raindance?
Jeesh I sould like their PR, but seriously, they are worth the effort. They deliver in every way.
What is a cider donut? I must know immedjeeatley!
I need to know what a cider doUGHnut is! Is it UGH?
LAK – could I suitably bring Sixlet Major (13 yo) along?
Sixer: it depends on film certificates. Go to the website http://www.raindancefestival.org film catalogue should be up by now.
Please note that many of the films don’t have distribution, so you read the description and decide if you like the sound of it and hope for the best.
If unsure, call the office. They’ll let you know if the film you want is OK for the sixlets.
Cider doughnut sounds like a doughnut dipped in cider. Which is inexplicably confusing to me because why would you want to ruin perfectly scrumptious cider? 😉
Cheers, LAK. Will do.
Lilac! Come back! We need enlightenment on cider doughnuts!
UGH I must know! Is it like rum cake? Because that stuff will seriously f-ck you up. And then give you diabetes for fun.
Sorry, I’m back. The best cider doughnuts are made at apple orchards. Except no substitutes. They are made with apple cider and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar when hot from the fryer. They are crunchy on the outside, moist on the inside. Best eaten warm. Melting autumn heaven.
Not UGH!
All the apple orchards in my state must be broken then because I’ve never seen them mad me here before. Also, am I allowed to mention that I’m slightly disappointed that there isn’t an alcoholic component to said donuts? I feel like cider donut should come with a warning label to not operate heavy machinery or something.
@mimif I think we’re in the same state, and I am completely unfamiliar with these cider donuts too. Which is just wrong. That sounds like a far superior Fall treat to those dames pumpkin spice lattes.
Apple cider is an ingredient. They are awesome. I get them from the farmers markets.
Apparently, cider doughnuts are a New England thing.
Scorsese was once an independent filmaker.
This brings to mind Gigli, which wouldn’t have been such a flop if not also for the $70m cost to make it. How on Earth did they spend/waste this money?! My only guess is that in both cases, the mafia (of some sort) really was involved in production and skimmed off the top…
Well at least we know he’s not part of Taylor’s girl squad, other wise it would be a swan. Happy labour day to all American posters. Have a super fun, relaxed whatever tickles your fancy weekend!!!!
He is such an interesting man! You can keep the ‘hearthrob’ HW stars for me, I’d rather sit down to lunch/dinner with Scorsese any-day of the week, he would just be so fascinating to listen to, hugely knowledgeable, intelligent and funny. Mind you given his really rather rapid speech patterns, I think that’s what you would do, just sit back, listen and be royally entertained for a couple of hours – whilst being mesmerized by his eyebrows obviously 🙂
Hope you all had a lovely weekend!
I agree. The man loves movies. He writes and appears on TCM and he talks about films with a combination of knowledge and passion. He would probably pick out an awesome wine at lunch.
I agree I love to hear him talk about film. He’s done some great interviews/documentaries.
Tricky personal life though; 5 marriages! Ouch, Marty!
His relationship with Thelma Schoonmaker is the longest one it looks like.
He was seated at a restaurant table next to us once and we could hear everything he was saying without much effort. We had all (his party and our party) just come from seeing Spielberg’s War of the Worlds. He hated it. My friend, who worships Spielberg, was really upset because she thought it was fabulous and was so upset that Scorsese was saying such cruel things about a film she thought was a masterpiece.
Aw feel bad for your friend but I also hated War of the Worlds I’ve got very tired of effects laden movies. I prefer the old 1953 version with the shuddering spacecraft – that’s what you get for growing up on Dr. Who!
A lovely little documentary on the 1950’s special effects on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnCqi3sX3qs
Frisbee: I remember watching the old 1953 version on tv when I was a child. Gave me nightmares. Those were the days when the behind-the-scenes featurettes were not a standard so having no clue about it, not to mention an active imagination, it scared me silly.
Ditto Michael Jackson’s thriller film and The witch of the east in THE WIZARD OF OZ.
Didn’t watch them again until I was an adult. Amazing to see the very obvious creaky effects!! LOL.
@ LAK the joy of them are the creaky effects – they’re hilarious 🙂
My mother was a kid during the original radio broadcast of War of the Worlds. They made it seem like real breaking news in between musical numbers. One of the neighbor kids came running over, crying, really upset by the news of the invasion. She remembered that he kept saying through his tears as he tried to explain, “honest, it ain’t no shit!”. She and her sister missed the whole thing because they were channel surfing, switching to another station every time the “news” broke into the music and then switching back again only when the music returned.
Leo looks orange in that bottom pic. His face anyway. His neck looks to be of a normal shade. I can never look at a pic of Martin Scorsese without thinking of that fish he voiced in that A Shark Tale or whatever it was film. The poor fish had the same eyebrows.
“most things Leo touches these days are a little sketchy”
You’re blaming Leo for this?
I’m beginning to think there are now more film festivals than films..and some..like Venice..have become more famous for the partying and posing for paps than the movies. Scorsese is one of the few around who has a knowledge of filmmaking history and probably rolls his eyes at the excesses today.
Film festivals aren’t all equal. You soon learn which ones to bother vs the ones that deserve an eyeroll. Venice still has clout and is worth the bother. With few exceptions, any film that does well there is immediately on a fast track to Oscar.
Looking over the golden lion award (highest prize) winners..that really isn’t true…venice and Cannes are for making deals, finding distributors..
Boredblonde: who said anything about the golden lion winners?
It’s usually the films that connect with the audiences and critics at Venice (and Toronto and Telluride) that do well at the oscars. Audience/critic award rarely wins the golden lion. The films that are well received at those festivals are the ones to look out for come award season even if they don’t make the cut as far as individual festival’s central award.
As an example, last year, BIRDMAN came out of Venice. It was the opening film. Buzz was immediate and it maintained that momentum until the awards. It didn’t win the Golden Lion.
Further, whilst I’m perfectly aware the reasons a person would show their films at Cannes or Venice, the types of films shown at both festivals is very different. Cannes is probably the only festival in the world that takes everyone. All others have their special emphasise.
Yeah, I am sure the same man who did Wolf of Wallstreet is rolling his eyes at the excesses. The same man who spent 70 mil on a short film must just hate them.
I’ve never liked any of his films. Not a one. Even Cape Fear and Shutter Island which are in my fave genre. But no. They’re cold and heartless and the characters are all assholes.
He’s obsessed with gangsters and dark stories. Kundun was excellent though. So was The Age of Innocence. You can’t deny he’s a technical and aesthetic master of film, probably top ten of all time. Too bad about the subject matter of most of his films.
I love how Scorcese likely has a better body than Leo and is easily 200 years old, give or take a few. He’s wearing a shirt but notice his midsection is rather toned.
Tangent: I decided earlier this summer that I want to spend my retirement tubing. It is the most gloriously relaxing “activity” and never fails to bring a smile to my face. I live in south Texas and river tubing is a thing here, you can even rent special tubes for your cooler of refreshing beverages. Dogs are welcome, my little guy went tubing with me when he was a younger pup. Ahhhh tubing…..
Martin Scorsese : The Age of Innocence. Glorious.