Being old doesn’t stop really talented directors from achieving success and then taking on new projects Variety talks about upcoming films from veterans of the film industry.
Scorsese
After 10 nominations for «Oscar» for last year’s crime film «Killers of the flower full moon» Martin Scorsese, 81, is planning several next projects. He wants to make two films back-to-back: the first about Jesus, and the second, a biopic about Frank Sinatra.
The Oscar-winning director is going to bypass the studio system and self-finance «The Life of Jesus», based on the 1973 book by Shusaku Endo. He used the same approach in the 2016 drama «Silence» (which was also an adaptation of Endo’s novel). Scorsese would like to reunite with «Silence» star Andrew Garfield for the «Jesus» project, although it is unclear whether the actor will play the lead or play one of the disciples. Production is expected to begin later this year, and filming will take place in Israel, Italy, and Egypt. Filming in Israel could prove to be a serious problem, as the country is at war with Hamas.
The «Sinatra» project may also face some problems: the daughter of the legendary singer Tina Sinatra controls her father’s estate and has not yet given her consent to the film. But that didn’t stop Scorsese from assembling a powerful cast, with Leonardo DiCaprio playing the singer himself and Jennifer Lawrence playing his second wife, actress Ava Gardner. It was Gardner who prevented Sinatra’s marriage to Nancy Barbato, Tina’s mother.
Spielberg
Also on the horizon is Scorsese’s collaboration with Steven Spielberg on the «Cape Fear» series for Apple TV+. The two legends will serve as executive producers on the project, which is based on the 1991 and 1962 Universal films.
The 77-year-old Spielberg, director of «Close Encounters of the Third Kind», is working on his next project, a UFO movie written by David Koepp. Very little is known about this film, but it is confirmed that the sci-fi movie is based on Spielberg’s original idea. Details of the story, cast, plot, title, and release date are currently unknown.
Eastwood
Clint Eastwood, 93, has just completed post-production on «Juror No. 2». Insiders say that Warner Bros. is excited about Nicholas Hoult’s role in the film about a juror in a murder case who realizes that he may be responsible for the victim’s death. Earlier, several studios reportedly turned down the risky and low-budget project.
«Eastwood is the great-grandfather of the geriatric generation,” jokes 77-year-old director Paul Schrader. — But there was a guy from Portugal, Manuel de Oliveira, who worked until he was 104 [the director died in 2015 at the age of 106]. So Clint still has a chance to catch up with him».