Scorsese, Dicaprio Plan ‘Gangs’

Wed., July 14, 1999

Chris Gennusa

The much-anticipated collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio inched ever closer to becoming a reality Monday when Scorsese huddled with Disney executives to work out a manageable budget for “Gangs of New York.”

If everything goes as planned, the long-in-development period piece about Irish hoodlums will be Scorsese and DiCaprio’s next film, with a likely November start. Depending on the budget, sources said Rome may be a location for the movie, which is set in New York during the era of Tammany Hall’s peak of political wickedness.

Robert De Niro is in discussions to star alongside DiCaprio, but no deal has been made.

Sources said Scorsese and his frequent collaborator, Jay Cocks, recently turned in a rewrite that includes a love story. The new draft met with the studio’s approval.

Disney Studios Chairman Joe Roth and Michael Ovitz, head of Artists Management Group - which represents Scorsese and DiCaprio - discussed the project at last week’s Allen & Co. conference in Idaho. If the project comes together, it will mark the first major package for fledgling AMG.

One key issue will be how to defray some of the picture’s costs, with sources noting that it will be “a very expensive movie.”

Disney may enter into a cofinancing arrangement with another studio. Possible partners include Sony Pictures Entertainment, Paramount Pictures or 20th Century Fox.

Scorsese and Cocks, who worked together on 1993’s “The Age of Innocence,” have been developing “Gangs” for many years.

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Scorsese, Dicaprio Plan ‘Gangs’

Jesse Tinsley

Jim Meehan

Molly Quinn

Rob Curley

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