Scorsese and DiCaprio To Work Together Again for THE WOLF OF WALL STREET! Plus SILENCE!

 

So far, the partnership of Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio has done well for both of them, even going so far as to get Scorsese that elusive Oscar for THE DEPARTED (that he should have gotten for RAGING BULL, but who's counting).  If it hasn't hit the great highs of the Scorsese/De Niro partnership yet, well, there's still time and I think they work well with each other, giving us some damn good movies - the aforementioned DEPARTED, GANGS OF NEW YORK, THE AVIATOR, and last year's SHUTTER ISLAND.  Now it looks like they are going to get together once again for THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, based on the non-fiction book by Jordan Belfort, according to Vulture.  The book is a documentation of Belfort's rise as a stockbroker in the 1990s who committed securities fraud and money laundering, who as the book's cover says, "partied like a rock star, lived like a king, and barely survived my rise and fall as an American Entrepreneurial Icon."  The story was the inspiration for BOILER ROOM, so you could see how Scorsese and DiCaprio would be interested in making it.  It sounds like the Wall Street version of GOODFELLAS.

 

They will be independently funding the project, with Terrence Winter (BOARDWALK EMPIRE) executive producing, with Winter writing the script as well.  But first, Scorsese will be shooting SILENCE, a film he's been wanting to make since the 1990s, and honestly that film sounds amazing as well.  SILENCE, based on the novel by Shusaku Endo, is about Jesuit missionaries sent to 17th century Japan, and Scorsese has been circling the project since 1998.  Scorsese going to get his Kurosawa on?  I'm all for it.  At one point Benicio Del Toro and Daniel Day-Lewis were both attached, but it's unclear if they are still involved with the project.  It seems that Del Toro is still attached, but Day-Lewis is going to be filming LINCOLN with Steven Spielberg, and he normally only signs with one project at a time.  I'm sure he'd love to work with Scorsese again, though.

 

Scorsese seems to have gotten his second wind, turning out consistently interesting films and doing amazing work.  I'm very curious to see what Scorsese does with 3D in HUGO CABRET, and with these two projects it doesn't look like the master filmmaker is slowing down anytime soon, which can only be good for us.

 

Nordling, out.