‘Angry' Martin Scorsese wanted to use a gun and steal ‘Taxi Driver' rough cut from Columbia Pictures
Martin Scorsese, 82, said he nearly threatened the movie studio over a disagreement about his 1976 classic 'Taxi Driver.'
In a first-look clip from the October Apple TV+ documentary 'Mr. Scorsese,' the legendary director opened up to Steven Spielberg about how Columbia Pictures was allegedly anxious about the movie's disturbing content, and wanted him to cut some key materials.
Advertisement
9 Martin Scorsese in the '70s, in a photo shown in 'Mr. Scorsese.'
Apple TV
9 Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese during Artist's Rights Foundation in 1996 at Century Plaza Hotel in Century City, California.
WireImage
'Marty was very upset,' Spielberg, 78, recalled in the clip.
Advertisement
'I get a call at the office, and he said, 'Steve, Steve, this is Marty. Can you come over to the house?''
Scorsese was then shown saying, 'They wanted me to cut all the blood spurting. They wanted me to cut the guy who loses the hand…'
9 Martin Scorsese at the TCM Classic Film Festival 92NY on January 25, 2025 in New York City.
Getty Images for TCM
9 Robert DeNiro in 'Taxi Driver.'
Everett Collection / Everett Collection
Advertisement
An unseen interviewer asked the 'Goodfellas' director if he got a gun, to which Scorsese replied onscreen, 'I was going to get one.'
When asked what he planned to do with a gun, Scorsese explained, '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.'
'The Wolf of Wall Street' director added, '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.'
9 Robert De Niro in 'Taxi Driver.'
Everett Collection / Everett Collection
Advertisement
The Oscar-winning filmmaker added, 'So let me destroy it. I'll destroy it. But before destroying it, I'm going to steal it.'
Scorsese explained that Spielberg talked him out of it, telling him, 'Marty, stop that. Marty, you can't do that.'
Laughing, he recalled, 'I said… The more they said no, the more I said I was going to do it.'
9 Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese on the set of 'Taxi Driver' in 1976.
Everett Collection
9 Robert De Niro in 'Taxi Driver.'
Courtesy Everett Collection
Spielberg recalled that in the end, someone came up with an idea to 'mollify' the Motion Picture Association of America by toning down the bloodiness of the scene to make it look grainier, like a tabloid photo.
'He just had to take the color red down to a kind of brown,' Spielberg said.
'Taxi Driver,' which follows the deteriorating mental state of former Vietnam War vet turned taxi driver Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), went on to earn a 'Best Picture' Oscar nomination.
Advertisement
9 Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese on the set of 'Taxi Driver' on July 15, 1975, in New York City.
Penske Media via Getty Images
9 Jodie Foster and Robert De Niro in 'Taxi Driver.'
Courtesy Everett Collection
De Niro and his co-star Jodie Foster, who was just 12 when she played a teen prostitute in 'Taxi Driver, also got Oscar nods for their roles in the flick.
'Mr. Scorsese' premieres on AppleTV+ on Oct. 17.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
22 minutes 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
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Jordon Hudson and Bill Belichick's ex, Linda Holliday, attend same Nantucket party months after holiday clash
It seems the ice has thawed in Nantucket. Jordon Hudson and Linda Holliday were spotted at the same Massachusetts fundraiser on Saturday, roughly eight months after Bill Belichick's current gal pal and his ex-girlfriend, respectively, clashed at a holiday affair. TMZ reported Monday that 'no issues were seen by partygoers' at the Boston Pops on Nantucket soiree, which is 'believed to be [Hudson and Holliday's] first public run-in' since the Nantucket Dreamland encounter last December, when Holliday confronted Hudson. 5 Bill Belichick and girlfriend Jordon Hudson in February 2025. Getty Images 5 Linda Holliday, who previously dated Bill Belichick, was at a fundraiser in Nantucket over the weekend that Jordon Hudson also attended. Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Holliday — who split from Belichick, 73, in 2023 after 16 years of dating — told organizers at the December 2024 gathering she felt Hudson's 'presence was inappropriate, since the event was widely advertised as a party headlined by her daughters,' and asked a staffer to 'remove Ms. Hudson from the premises,' according to an incident report obtained by TMZ in May. Holliday and two others confronted Hudson on the dance floor, and when a staffer approached Hudson about whether 'she thought it was a good idea to be there,' the former college cheerleader defended herself, stating she hadn't done anything wrong. 5 Linda Holliday and Bill Belichick dated for 16 years before their breakup was reported in 2023. Getty Images for Churchill Downs However, the fireworks didn't stop there as Hudson claimed to the event staffer that her friend, former Miss Massachusetts USA Melissa Sapini, was 'seemingly threatened by Ms. Holliday, saying that if Ms. Sapini valued her current title, she should think twice about who her friends are and that she, Ms. Holliday, had many powerful friends in the pageant organization,' per the incident report. Sapini joined Hudson for Saturday's festivities. 5 Jordon Hudson with close friend Melissa Sapini. jordon/Instagram Hudson shot to immediate fame last June when she and Belichick went public with their relationship. Controversies have followed the couple in the months since, including a CBS interview debacle in April when Hudson punted a question about how she and Belichick met. Recently, the former Miss Maine USA contestant made headlines for cold-calling podcaster Charlotte Wilder, who has discussed her romance with Belichick on 'The Sports Gossip Show' with Madeline Hill, and later gave her take on the matter. 5 Controversies have followed Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson since the couple went public with their romance in 2024. Instagram/@jordon_isabella Belichick, an eight-time Super Bowl-winning NFL coach, is gearing up for his first season in the college ranks as UNC's football coach. The Tar Heels host TCU in their season opener on Sept. 1.
Cosmopolitan
an hour ago
- Cosmopolitan
Jennifer Aniston Recalls Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Tabloids
Jennifer Aniston is an acclaimed actor with a hit Apple TV+ show, The Morning Show, currently gearing up for its fourth season. But even all of her professional success isn't enough to keep fans from wondering about the 2005 tabloid scandal of Brangelina. In a new interview, Jennifer reflected on her 'love triangle' era and what it was really like to have the end of her marriage to Brad Pitt become public fodder. It's been 20 years since Brad famously left Jennifer for Angelina Jolie, his Mr. and Mrs. Smith co-star—and since Jennifer gave her first interview after the split with Vanity Fair. 'I haven't looked at that article in forever,' she said in her new cover interview with Vanity Fair. 'I just remember the experience of doing it—which was kind of jarring. It was also such a vulnerable time.' Looking back at her experience being on the cover of every tabloid, her marriage the subject of every celebrity gossip, Jennifer said, 'Journalism back then felt more like a form of sport.' She continued, 'It was such juicy reading for people. If they didn't have their soap operas, they had their tabloids.' The actor continued, saying that she told herself, 'Just pick yourself up by the bootstraps and keep on walking, girl.' Still, she was hurt by it, admitting, 'I didn't have a strong enough constitution to not get affected by it. We're human beings, even though some people don't want to believe we are. They think, 'You signed up for it, so you take it.' But we really didn't sign up for that.' That's not to say that Jennifer herself isn't immune to a little gossip now and then, especially when it concerns her famous ex. Asked about her friendship with Gwyneth Paltrow (who was famously linked to Brad before he married Jennifer) and whether or not the two ever swapped stories about their shared ex, Jennifer admitted, 'How can we not? We're girls.'
