‘Mr. Scorsese' promises an intimate look at one of the great American directors
At 82, Scorsese has a long list of movies in development, including an adaptation of the nonfiction shipwreck book 'The Wager' (by Boston University and Tufts graduate
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The series looks like a cinephile's dream, a candid in-depth study of a filmmaker who loves to talk (often very fast).
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Chris Vognar can be reached at
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Fox News
9 hours ago
- Fox News
Martin Scorsese threatened to get a gun to protect ‘Taxi Driver' from studio cuts
Though it's been nearly 40 years since Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" hit theaters, the Oscar Award-winning director still recalls the extreme measures he considered taking in order to convince the studio to greenlight the 1976 film in its entirety. In a preview clip for Apple TV+'s documentary "Mr. Scorsese," the 82-year-old director, along with Steven Spielberg, recalled the studio's (Columbia Pictures) concern about the movie's bloody content. "Marty was very upset," Spielberg, 78, said at the beginning of the clip. "I get a call at the office, and he said, 'Steve, Steve, this is Marty. Can you come over to the house?'" "They wanted me to cut all the blood spurting," Scorsese reveals. "They wanted me to cut the guy who loses the hand..." "You got a gun?" an interviewer asks him behind the scenes. "I was going to get one," he admits. "So you said you were going to get a gun?" the interviewer asks. "And you said you were going to do what with the gun?" WATCH: NEW EPISODES OF 'MARTIN SCORSESE PRESENTS THE SAINTS' NOW STREAMING ON FOX NATION "I don't know. I was angry. I said I was going to threaten them... I'll maybe just shoot or something. I had no idea. I mean, I was just threatening. What I wanted to do, and not with a gun, I would go in, find out where the rough cut is, and break the windows and take it away. They were going to destroy the film anyway, you know. So let me destroy it. I'll destroy it. But before destroying it, I'm going to steal it." "Spielberg said, 'Marty, stop that. Marty you can't do that.' I said... The more they said no, the more I said I was going to do it," he continues. Spielberg said someone, possibly Scorsese, "mollified" the Motion Picture Association of America. "What if we take that whole sequence and tone the color down and make it feel more like a tabloid," Scorsese said. "He saved the movie because he didn't have to cut any of the violence, he just had to take the color red down to a kind of brown," Spielberg explained. A representative for Scorsese did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. The film, which starred Jodie Foster and Robert De Niro, received four nominations at the 49th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (De Niro) and Best Supporting Actress (Foster). In 2024, Foster — who has been acting since she was 3 years old — opened up about her experience filming the thriller. "I first worked with Martin Scorsese when I was about 10 on 'Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore,'" she said in an interview with W magazine. "By the time I was 12, I'd made a lot more films than De Niro or Scorsese." "They were definitely scared of me. 'What do we do with this 12-year-old?' I was in my hot pants and corkies, or whatever those platform shoes were called." Foster played a child prostitute in the 1976 drama. De Niro was 31 during filming, and he'd been acting for around a decade. Scorsese had directed seven full-length films and a number of shorts at the time.
Boston Globe
21 hours ago
- Boston Globe
‘Mr. Scorsese' promises an intimate look at one of the great American directors
'The 'Mr. Scorsese' team was given exclusive, unrestricted access to Scorsese's private archives and conducted extensive interviews with the filmmaker. It is anchored by conversations with Scorsese, his friends, family and creative collaborators including Robert De Niro, Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mick Jagger, Robbie Robertson, Thelma Schoonmaker, Steven Spielberg, Sharon Stone, Jodie Foster, Paul Schrader, Margot Robbie, Cate Blanchett, Jay Cocks and Rodrigo Prieto, along with his children, wife Helen Morris and close childhood friends.' At 82, Scorsese has a long list of movies in development, including an adaptation of the nonfiction shipwreck book 'The Wager' (by Boston University and Tufts graduate Advertisement The series looks like a cinephile's dream, a candid in-depth study of a filmmaker who loves to talk (often very fast). Advertisement Chris Vognar can be reached at
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Martin Scorsese Considered Violent Tactic to Steal 'Taxi Driver' From Studio
Martin Scorsese Considered Violent Tactic to Steal 'Taxi Driver' From Studio originally appeared on Parade. Martin Scorsese revealed the surprising lengths he was willing to take to make sure that his version of Taxi Driver was on the final cut. In a first-look clip from the the upcoming five-part Apple TV+ documentary Mr. Scorsese, Scorsese, 82, and friend Steven Spielberg discussed how Columbia Pictures was concerned about some of the bloody content in the movie. The production studio almost even stopped Scorsese's vision from appearing in theaters. "Marty was very upset," Spielberg, 78, said in the beginning of the clip. "I get a call at the office, and he said (imitating Scorsese's hyper New York City accent), 'Steve, Steve, this is Marty. Can you come over to the house.'" Scorsese added, "They wanted me to cut all the blood spurting. They wanted me to cut the guy who loses the hand …" When an interviewer offscreen asked if he had a gun, Scorsese responded, "I was going to get one." The interviewer asked Scorsese what he was "going to do what with the gun," and he admitted that he didn't have a solid plan. Parade Daily🎬 SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 "I was angry. I said I was going to threaten them … I'll maybe just shoot or something. I had no idea. I mean, I was just threatening. What I wanted to do, and not with a gun, I would go in, find out where the rough cut is, and break the windows and take it away," Scorsese said. "They were going to destroy the film anyway, you know. So let me destroy it. I'll destroy it. But before destroying it, I'm going to steal it." He continued, "Spielberg said, 'Marty, stop that. Marty you can't do that.' I said… The more they said no, the more I said I was going to do it." Spielberg then shared that someone came up with a plan to "mollify" the MPAA [Motion Picture Association of America], in which Scorsese toned down the bloodiness of the offending sequence with the color of the scene. "He just had to take the color red down to a kind of brown," Spielberg explained. Once the 1976 film was released, it was critically acclaimed and was nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards. Additionally, stars Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster earned acting nods. Martin Scorsese Considered Violent Tactic to Steal 'Taxi Driver' From Studio first appeared on Parade on Aug 11, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 11, 2025, where it first appeared.
