The Departed: Warner Bros. wanted a very different ending (but Scorsese remained faithful to his ideas)

Martin Scorsese settles the score

While his new film The Assassins of the Flower Moon arrives in cinemas in mid-October, Martin Scorsese is promoting it on numerous media. To talk about The Assassins of the Flower Moon, obviously, but also to address more broadly his filmography, his inspirations, his career, his situation today. At almost 81 years old, firmly placed in the pantheon of the 7th art, how many projects can he still develop? Can he still work with the current film industry, to which he directs very concrete criticism?

In a long portrait dedicated to him by GQthe director of Taxi driver AND The Freedmen he gives in generously and even settles some scores. This is the case of the Warner Bros. studios, with which Martin Scorsese collaborated on several occasions in production and distribution, before publishing put an end to this partnership after the release of his film Infiltrators in 2006. Did they break up on good terms? Not really, and explain why.

Warner Bros. wanted a franchise

In this portrait, Martin Scorsese looks back at his films made since the 2000s, listing many of the problems he encountered. Harvey Weinstein, against whom he had to fight intensely regarding duration and budget New York gangs. Then there it was Aviator, for which Miramax and Warner Bros. cut funding in the middle of post-production, forcing Martin Scorsese to take $500,000 out of his own pocket to finish the film. Two productions at the end of which he decided, as he explains, “stop making films“.

But chasing away the natural and galloping back, Martin Scorsese is obsessed and a genius of cinema, so he would always return to it. This is how he realized it in 2006 Infiltrators, with Warner Bros.. Everything is going well, until a test screening where Warner Bros. execs put their foot in the problem one time too many. The director remembers this screening from which the entire audience left enraptured. With the exception of the executives at Warner Bros….

The studio guys came out and were very sad, just because they didn’t want this movie. They wanted a franchise. Which meant: I can’t work with them anymore.

Concretely, in this American remake of the Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, Warner Bros. wanted one of the two main characters, William Costigan Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) or Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) to survive. To open towards a sequel, which would effectively constitute a franchise.

What they wanted was a franchise. It wasn’t a moral reflection on a character’s survival or death.

Fortunately, Martin Scorsese did not give in to Warner Bros.’ wishes, killing off his two characters as planned in this thriller. Since then history has proved him right Infiltrators stood out for four Oscars in 2007 : Best Film, Best Director, Best Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Source: Cine Serie

Ray

Ray Ortiz is a journalist at Gossipify, known for his coverage of trending news and current events. He is committed to providing readers with accurate and unbiased reporting, and is respected for his ability to keep readers informed on the latest news and issues.