Martin Scorsese Eyeing Frank Sinatra Biopic With Unsurprising Leading Actor Choice

Some Hollywood directors prove age is just a number as they keep working hard despite being way past the usual retirement age. Among them is Martin Scorsese, who took Mark Twain’s words; “age is a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind it, it doesn’t matter,” to heart when it comes to filmmaking.

Steven Spielberg, who will executive produce alongside Martin on Apple TV+ series Cape Fear is also not out of the game in his late seventies. Martin also has a lineup of projects for this year, reportedly including a film about Jesus, and a Frank Sinatra biopic featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence.

Martin Scorsese is set to produce a Frank Sinatra biopic

Although Sinatra’s daughter, Tina, who controls the late “Ol’ Blue Eyes’” estate, has yet to approve of the Frank Sinatra’s biopic, Martin has allegedly gone ahead to eye DiCaprio as the late singer, and Jennifer as his second wife, actress Ava Gardner— who famously disrupted Sinatra’s marriage to Tina’s mother, Nancy Barbato. Sources say big studios and streaming platforms are looking to get on the project including Apple, which financed multiple Oscar-nominated Killers of the Flower Moon with $215 million. However, Sony seems to be most likely favored for this biopic.

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Aside from Martin, and Spielberg, who is likely making a UFO film with David Koepp, elderly creators in their field like Francis Ford Coppola, David Cronenberg, and Paul Schrader have new movies in the works as well. “I’m sure most artists want to keep working, but sometimes you’re not fortunate enough, lucky enough, good enough to stay in the arena. And if you don’t have that creative motivation, you’re just gonna get called out as an emblem of something that used to be,” Paul, who wrote the screenplay for Martin’s Taxi Driver explained, adding that like everyone else, he “had to keep working.”

Martin is also looking to independently make a movie about Jesus based on Shūsaku Endō’s 1973 book, A Life of Jesus. Sources say the Academy Award-winning director is considering casting Miles Teller, and Andrew Garfield as the lead or one of the disciples. Filming is scheduled to begin this year in Italy, Egypt, and Israel; however the latter may prove difficult due to ongoing unrest.

The upcoming 80-minute film is intended to “take away the negatives associated with organized religion.” The 81-year-old added that it “focuses on Jesus’s core teachings in a way that explores the principles but doesn’t proselytize.”

“Right now, ‘religion’, you say that word, and everyone is up in arms because it’s failed in so many ways. But that doesn’t mean necessarily that the initial impulse was wrong,” he told The Los Angeles Times a few months ago. “You may reject it. But it might make a difference in how you live your life— even in rejecting it. Don’t dismiss it offhand. That’s all I’m talking about.”