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You can read the lawsuit here. Cecchi Gori Pictures and Cecchi Gori USA filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court today against director Martin Scorsese and his production company Sikelia Productions. Cecchi Gori says it invested more than $750,000 to develop the book Silence into a feature film based on contracts and assurances by Scorsese and Sikelia that it would be Scorsese’s next project. Scorsese initally agreed in 1990 to co-produce and direct Silence after he completed Kundun (1997). But the lawsuit alleges Scorsese and Sikelia arranged to postpone starting on Silence so the director could make The Departed (2006), Shutter Island (2010) and Hugo (2011). Earlier this year, Deadline reported that Scorsese planned to make The Wolf Of Wall Street with Leonardo DiCaprio. This was news to Cecchi Gori, which notified Scorsese/Sikelia of their alleged breach of contract on Silence and for not paying the agreed-upon financial and production credit consideration for Hugo. Silence is based on the novel by Shusako Endo about Portuguese Jesuit missionaries who are sent to Japan to investigate reports of Christians persecuted and tortured by the Emperor of Japan.
Related: Martin Scorsese Commits To ‘The Wolf Of Wall Street’
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If I’m not mistaken, the reason SILENCE isn’t next is because Graham King / GK Films owns the rights and their feud over HUGO led to Scorsese moving on to other partners..
Thank you for this. 22 years in development, huh? While I feel Cecchi Gori’s pain, I am framing this piece for a wall of my private development hell as a reminder.
Marty has the attention span of a hummingbird he’s constantly flitting back and forth from one flower to the next flower. They should have sued him 20 years ago but they kept giving him another year then another year then it turned into a decade then another decade because he kept finding things he liked more and wanted to do instead. Better late than never I guess. He won’t ever do this movie he’ll pay them to make this go away.
MS has the fear that someone else will make a movie from something he wants to do. So, he will just keep spinning a project to death and have the studios pay turnaround fees. However, studio development execs flip faster than hotcakes on a sunday griddle and they gain bragging rights for their short careers that they have a Scorsese project developing.
After the disaster that was “Hugo” (a reported #175-200-mil write-off), having “a Scorsese project developing” is nothing to brag about.
Ya, throw those 5 Oscars it won in the trash. All that matters is the amount of money it made, not the quality of the film. Sheesh, some people.
so Scorsese already paid voluntarily min $3mill + huge backend profits NOT to direct “Silence” than to direct it.
I don’t know who Cecchi Gori is, but it doesn’t mean he’s not important…:)
I m surprised that anyone would want to sue Marty, he is a nice person and always seem so busy with his art projects that I don’t think he’s intentionally ignoring anyone, he might be forgetful because of his age and hectic schedules….too much on his plate it seems….
I would like Gori to drop the lawsuit against Marty because it’s unwarranted and mean spirited….it’s been 12 years and now the law suit comes out of no where…..
I understand the subject of the movie is about Christians being persecuted in Japan by their evil emperor and it’s very much about religion….unless it’s done well, I honestly don’t know how much it will appeal to the mass audience…it should be done as a small budget indie film, in this case it would be wise not to hire Marty because he’s known for big projects and I’m sure the expense of hiring him for a small film doesn’t make sense in the budget….
I would hire another director and go indie route instead and make $$$$$ from small budget, like Animal Kingdom for example…..
This whole law suit is pointless, because Marty is too big of a director for the project and the subject itself ( as far as business is concerned ) will best sell as an independent film and hope to make lots at the end….if you go big budget on this, you will lose money, because it will not draw the mass audience that Gori wants….after all I assume Gori wants to make profits from any project he’s involved in?….so take my advise and go that route as indie film and let Marty go and drop the law suit….good luck to both. Gori should focus his energy on completing the project the right way and not waste time in the wrong direction….
Is there even an audience for ‘Silence’? I’ve not read the novel, which might be magnificent, but I wonder if even Scorcese’s pull is still strong enough to pull in enough people here. You know, what with ‘Hugo’…
How could anyone think the plot could potentially make a hit movie? Given that Kundun flopped, it makes more sense to cut their losses back then and scrap the entire project.
Considering that most of the studios are investing in biblical films, SILENCE would fit right in. Silence isn’t Kundun, with three male leads like Daniel Day Lewis, and a Christian storyline it would be more in the line with epic hit films such as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or The Last Emperor success.
I think what happened is that Scorsese realized that there wasn’t a part in this for Leo. We all saw what happened when he went Leoless on Hugo. Scorsese will never make that mistake again.
I guess the title of the movie is enough to turn off anyone from directing it…even worse, to watch it. Sounds like a boring movie…zzz. “silence” is enough to tell me that audiences will fall asleep watching it.
Maybe they can settle in a constructive way. I’d like to see him direct this movie. There will never be enough time in a lifetime for Scorsese to direct all the movies that he wishes to make and visit all the subjects he wishes to address. Where others see indecision I see an inspiring artistic work ethic. And name an actor who wouldn’t be interested in the possibility of working with him. He’s like Nichols in this regard pertaining to actors generally.