UPDATE: Johnny Depp As Frank Sinatra?
EXCLUSIVE: He was an enigmatic legend, and it looks as if the picture that just came together will do that justice. I’ve just learned that Universal has acquired this project based on the life of Frank Sinatra from Mandalay Pictures. Phil Alden Robinson is writing the screenplay, and Marty Scorsese will direct as well as produce through his Sikelia Productions. The Sinatra family gave its permission, which is not easy to get, and youngest daughter Tina Sinatra will be an executive producer along with Robinson and Garry LeMel, the former president of Warner Bros music division and himself a musician. The producers will be Peter Guber and his movie exec Cathy Schulman. “This has been a passion project for Peter Guber for a long time, and first he got together with the Sinatra Estate, and then with Scorsese who’s also a huge Sinatra fan,” an insider tells me. That Scorsese might direct this film has been rumored for a year. In fact, Tina herself has told journalists in the past that she would “trust Scorsese implicitly” to “present the truth” about her father because he’s also an Italian-American. No names of actors who might play Sinatra in the movie are circulating yet. Any suggestions?
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.







Mandalay = bomb.
You’re all wrong. It will be Will Smith as Frank Sinatra and it WILL involve an invasion of aliens from Jupiter whom Frank defeats by doing it “his way.”
What about Barack Obama?
Harry Connick Jr
If not Leo then… Paul Rudd has the looks and can sing. Jamie Foxx as Sammy Davis Jr. Vince Vaughn as Dean Martin.
Where and when may I audition to play the band leader so Luca Brazzi hold a gun to my head? I want to let yound Frankie out his contract.
Joe Piscopo
You beat Variety by an hour…again! They sent their eblast breaking news at 1:32pm.
Rock on!
Johnny Depp!!
No, no, no , not Di Caprio. Di Caprio is such an overrated bore. He does not have the juice for this. Enough with executives and directors casting from their man crushes. It doesn’t translate to box office.
This film needs an unknown.
Sinatra was not associated with the Mafia. He only worked in their casinos.He was one of the biggest contributors to Isreal and was forefront in race relations.He was, and is, a great humanatarian…
I think it should go to Kevin Spacey. Spacey is also a good singer (as he was in beyond the sea).
please not Hugh Jackman
Three words — Zac fuc**n Efron!
It’s gonna be a reverse Raging Bull for any actor. Sinatra young was very skinny.
If it’s diCaprio, I for one will NOT watch it. Many guys from work refuse to watch anything with diCaprio. He’s too effeminate, among other things. Sinatra was a guy’s guy, diCaprio isn’t.
I would be surprised if it’s not DiCaprio. Scorsese doesn’t like switching actors. Leo did a good job of disappearing into the role of Hughes, but I do get the idea that he might be distracting as Sinatra.
Then again, Sinatra is so iconic that we’d have the same problem with any well-known actor portraying him. I think an unknown would really be best.
Why not Tom Cruise?
DiCaprio doesn’t look the part.. best bet will be to get a nobody who is a talented actor / singer and cast him…
It can only be Michael Buble – he has the voice and same style as Frank.
Try not to forget that Sinatra was first and foremost “The Voice” and the odds of someone with acting chops having a comparable one are somewhere around a billion to zero.
Smarter to be trawling for a gifted actor with credibly similar features and then DUBBING HIM for the music numbers.
John Reese Myers – he did a good job with Elvis.
Curious to know what period of Sinatra’s life they’ll be focusing on. My guess would be Sinatra’s rise, his subsequent fall… injured his vocal chords, temptuous relationship with Ava Gardner, and his subsequent comeback with his role in “From Here to Eternity” and his brilliant work at Capitol Records. I can see Scorcese going with Leo, if he deals with the Rat pack Era at all, I’d like Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis Jr.
“Mafia? There is no mafia!”
-Frank Sinatra
The people who say DiCaprio are probably right…and that is a horrible thing. He has been Scorsese’s new Deniro for a while now.