Yes, I have heard of "High School Musical", but I am disinclined to talk about Disney and Scorsese at the same time and I'm not really sure a Disney film wins you the point. Remember as far back as "Cabaret" when Fosse put all of the songs into the cabaret stage show? Remember when the movie version of "Little Shop of Horrors" was promoted as a horror-comedy with no clue that it was a musical? Remember as recently as "Chicago"' where the songs were "imagined" by the characters? I hope I am flat wrong and that this noxious bugaboo has indeed been buried, but I don't think so. Since we are supposed to be talking about Scorsese, let me say that "New York, New York" was one of his weakest movies (is it over yet?) and that one DID have the music integrated into the story.

You might be "disinclined" but Scorsese did ostensibly make a film for them (Gangs Of New York).

Furthermore, it wasn't all that long ago that Chicago took home the Best Picture award. In addition, you don't really have to look much further than the reality show looking for the newest lead characters in Grease to see that people still willingly "accept" people "bursting into song". And you will see further acceptance once Johnny Depp does the same in Sweeney Todd later this year.

The first film I ever saw was Singin' in the Rain, when it opened at Radio City Music Hall back in 1952.

I was five years old.

Naively, I expected all movies would be as good. Boy was I ever wrong! With a few striking exceptions its been all downhill since 1952.

And because of Singin' in the Rain I find it unrealistic when characters in films DON'T break into song.

Amen to that. Deep down, aren't we all bursting into song every time we walk down the street, do the dishes, collect the bins or tickle the fancy? Or is this due also to Singin' in the Rain and Wizard of Oz on the big screen at age 3-4 in the early 70s?

For someone who has been in the game for as long as Scorsese, his innocence and genuine sincerity at finally being 'accepted' by winning big one shines through in those photos. He looks like a child again, who has finally discovered Oz, after years on the yellow brick road....

I was just commenting on Casino elsewhere -which I still think is Scorsese's last great movie. The musical soundtrack is relentless - it just never stops - and clearly foreshadows PTA's terrific Boogie Nights. Both these movies are musicals in some meta-musical sense. (Just as Walters can do Dreyer as Judy singing Harry Warren and Mack Gordon.)

While we're at it, is Columbia/Sony ever going to release a new edition of Taxi Driver? I've been holding off buying the current edish for a while. We all know the transfer could be improved.

I'm sure the next edition will be for HD. You could always get the Japanese Superbit.

The Independent has a great profile on Thelma Schoonmaker.

Associated Press sez Scorsese's next is The Silence, but it won't shoot until summer '08. He's currently wrapping up the Stones doc (set for a September 14 release).

Sounds good. Scorsese says, "It raises a lot of questions about foreign cultures coming in and imposing their way of thinking on another culture they know nothing about." I know he's taking a dig at American foreign policy here, and I have not read Silence, so I don't know if this is at all appropriate, but I'm really hoping he goes for the vibe of the Powell & Pressburger films he is so fond of with this one.

Casino's soundtrack definitely elevates the whole movie, the use of Devo's cover of "Satisfaction" is especially great. Compare that to The Departed, which had the cliched (but still effective) use of "Gimme Shelter" and then that terrible "Comfortably Numb" cover.

Still, I don't know if Scorsese has done anything as good as the opening shot of Boogie Nights set to "Best of My Love" since Goodfellas.

eh, I like it

I love it now.

I guess the Dean Martin project/musical-bio-pic has been completely shelved, which is a damn shame. All the themes and ingredients that Scorsese has spent his life dealing with are here - growing up as an Italian/American; the male vs. male ego-bondship; empty sexual obsession; Golden period Hollywood; public image; and music, music, music.

Or maybe he's just waiting for DeNiro to age a little longer. For we get a glimpse of how great this film could be with the last images in Casino, with DeNiro (as Deano) and those sunnies, accepting fate's hand.

Unfortunately, Dean was always supposed to have been played by Tom Hanks.

Egad.....perhaps we're better off.

Oh, it gets worse. Travolta was to play Sinatra, Jim Carrey was to play Jerry Lewis, and Adam Sandler was being considered for the role of Joey Bishop. Here's an ancient news item to that effect, and here's an interview with Scorsese (circa the release of The Aviator where he discusses what happened to the project.

That casting sounds like a bad SNL sketch.

Who would you cast?

I think Richard Gere would be a great Dean Martin.

Thanks for the link Matt. The last quote is interesting -

'I actually thought the strongest story there beyond the Rat Pack thing, before that was his relationship with Jerry Lewis and the creative relationship and how that worked out. Ultimately, having gone through such fame, having such a close working relationship, how he then pulled back seemingly creatively, seemingly, and had gone through such a close relationship - like a marriage. That's a very strong thing. That's really the story, I think. And it's the story of creative collaboration whether you're writers or painters or composers, musicians, anything, filmmakers, comedians. This is it. This is the story of two people and how they worked together over the years.'

From what I've read, this may be the autobiographical story arc DeNiro wants to sort out with Scorsese over the next few years.

I think Jim Carrey would actually be a good choice to play Jerry Lewis, given his apparent skill for mimicry.

Personally, I would set it in the late 80s/90s, with DeNiro as old Dino, spending most of the movie sitting alone in restaurants with his thoughts, beer and cold meats, as family, friends and fans come, bother and go. The occasional flashback; cuts into dreamland; lots of space; a low budget piece on blanking out creatively, spiritually and emotionally from everything and everyone - the long, empty wait.

Oddly enough, that's how I imagine Jerry Lewis today.

Go with Peter Bogdanovich -- he can play both Martin and Lewis.