Gangs ready to rumble -- Mifed Initial gets Gangs --
Knight Ridder Article -- New Baby, No DeNiro--
Scorsese Welcomes New Baby, De Niro New Film
Congratulations to Martin Scorsese. The director, who turns 57 today, welcomes a new baby with wife Helen Morris. Francesca, a healthy 5-pound, 9-ounce girl, was born Tuesday. All three are doing extremely well, reports Variety's Army Archerd.
Scorsese, who wed Morris in July, already has two daughters from previous marriages.
In other Scorsese news, the New York Daily News reports the director is considering Nick Nolte to take Robert De Niro's place in his soon-to-lens Gangs of New York epic. De Niro dropped out of the film with his longtime collaborator, reportedly because he didn't want to face a 22-week shoot in Rome away from his kids. Although the drama takes place in New York, the 19th-century setting necessitates a custom-made set, hence a Rome relocation.
De Niro and his Miramax partner Harvey Weinstein had hoped to shoot at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where they planned to build a studio until Mayor Giuliani went with another developer.
A source tells the News, "Bob had spent a long time working with Marty and Leo developing the script. But he didn't want to spend that many weeks away from his kids." The actor has two boys he fathered with ex-girlfriend Toukie Smith and a son with soon-to-be-ex-wife Grace Hightower.
De Niro has already landed a new project, however. Variety reports that he'll produce, and possibly direct and star in, There's Something About Miranda, based on a Vanity Fair article by Bryan Burrough. The article profiled a woman who became a phone confidante of several famous men, including Billy Joel, Warren Beatty, Bob Dylan, Ted Kennedy, Quincy Jones … and Robert De Niro. Chances are De Niro could appear as himself; no word on whether the other men named would also agree to cameo.
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Knight Ridder Newspapers
By Rene Rodriguez
"Next up for Scorsese is "Gangs of New York," a sprawling, $90 million epic that has finally been approved after almost a year of torturous meetings and pitches -- and that promises to be a spectacular summation of many of his favorite themes. Rumored to star Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz and Robert DeNiro (although Scorsese says nothing is confirmed), the movie is one of his dream projects, and he becomes visibly excited just talking about it.
"It takes place in 1846 to 1863 in New York, dealing with the Anglo-Saxon and Irish-Catholic gangs in the lower east side, the tip of Manhattan called the Five Points, which was known as the toughest corner in the world. Even Charles Dickens wrote about it when he came here in the 1850s. It was a den of iniquity.
"The story is about WASP gangs who felt there were enough people in America and didn't want anybody new -- particularly Catholics, Jews and blacks. And then you had all these Irish immigrants coming over -- Catholics, blacks, Jewish people. The way the Anglo-Saxon gangs went about it was pure brutality. Hardly any guns, mainly bats and clubs. Really tough stuff, almost post-apocalyptic, like Mad Max. You wouldn't think it was Manhattan.
"It's so crazy the way they dressed. The Plug Uglies wore a derby hat that was tall, and they stuffed canvas inside it and they'd pull it down over their ears, so it was like a helmet. The Dead Rabbits had their own way of speaking. We found a glossary from that period where if you actually have them speak the way they spoke, you'd need subtitles. They would go into battle with a dead rabbit crucified on a cross. They were very strong. They won a four-day battle in 1859 over the Bowery Boys. The Bowery Boys were bad. They were mainly firemen. They had red firemen shirts and wore stovepipe hats, checkered pants. It is REALLY wild.
"Everybody looks at Manhattan now and it's all civilized, but it all came out of this very primal, almost tribal mess, like Celtic tribes in Scotland and Ireland. When you look at the Celtic background, their gods were gods of war, and their pasttime was hitting each other. So this is Manhattan! You know what I mean?"
Scorsese laughs heartily, then suddenly becomes serious and says "If I get `Gangs of New York' done next year, that'll be practically every picture I've ever wanted to make. It's a charmed existence. You can't complain about it."
And considering the kinds of movies Scorsese has wanted to make, charmed may not be a strong enough word. Blessed is more like it."
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Big pics the rage at Mifed Initial gets 'Gangs' initiation
By Adam Dawtrey, October 18, 1999 MILAN
Nippon Herald is understood to have paid $16 million for Japanese rights to Gangs of New York, the $90 million Martin Scorsese project that is being sold internationally by Initial Entertainment Group. The deal, struck late last week at the London Screenings, is sure to be the single biggest transaction of the London/Mifed fortnight. Initial’s Gangs of New York, Icon’s $70 million Mel Gibson vehicle What Women Want and Buena Vista Film Sales’ $60 million Nicolas Cage starrer Family Man are the three blockbusters attracting the most attention.
But it was the huge sums that Initial sought for the Scorsese pic, which will star Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz, that provided the major talking point for buyers and rival sellers alike, many of whom claimed that Initial could not hope to recoup its $65 million deal for foreign rights. But with $16 million from Japan; $13 million in the bag from Initial’s German backer, Splendid Films; and a reported $6 million deal being hammered out in Spain, Initial is starting to hit the numbers it needs to come out ahead.
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With Miramax green, 'Gangs' ready to rumble
Initial may invest in Scorsese-helmed DiCaprio starrer
By CHRIS PETRIKIN, October 11, 1999
Ensuring a greenlight for the project, Miramax Films has agreed to co-finance and handle domestic distribution for Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York," the dark period pic set to star Leonardo DiCaprio.
Miramax's corporate parent, Walt Disney, which owns the film and has funded its development, chose earlier this year to take on international distribution of the pic and had been looking for a domestic partner to help defray the film's reported $90 million budget.
However, in another change in direction for the long-gestating project, Disney is in late-stage negotiations to sell international distribution rights to Initial Entertainment Group, the Los Angeles-based foreign sales and production outfit, at a cost of $65 million.
Financial backing
Chase Manhattan Bank is understood to be guaranteeing Initial's stake, and, according to sources close to the deal, will lend $30 million (the estimated amount of Initial's pre-existing line of credit with the bank) of that amount, with Initial fronting the remaining $35 million. Initial — whose president, Graham King, and chief financial officer, Colin Cotter, have been spearheading the deal — will own all international distribution rights for an unspecified term, with the copyright eventually reverting back to Disney.
"Gangs" will be the biggest pic Initial has ever handled. The company, which has backed such pics as "Very Bad Things," "Gun Shy," "Savior" and "If These Walls Could Talk," can afford a hefty tab for "Gangs" because earlier this year the firm sold a 49% stake to Splendid Group, the German distributor that recently staged a successful IPO. Under the partnership, Cologne-based Splendid and Initial will co-finance pics for worldwide distribution.
It's unclear how much of the remaining cost of the film will be shouldered by Miramax and how much Disney will kick in. But with its stake in the film, Miramax will control the production of "Gangs," which now looks on track to go before the cameras in February at Cinecitta studios in Rome, where production designer Dante Ferretti has already been at work reconstructing Gotham in the 1800s.
Miramax's involvement was solidified Friday evening following a meeting that included Scorsese, Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein, Disney Studios chairman Joe Roth and Rick Yorn, partner in Artists Managment Group that represents DiCaprio and Scorsese.
Miramax and Initial put to rest the myriad financing and distribution angles that have been attempted to finance the film over the past year — a series of events that observers have needed a score card to follow.
Disney and Scorsese's reps originally approached Warner Bros., where the helmer had a commitment to direct his next film, to co-finance "Gangs." Warner turned down the offer but allowed Scorsese a period of time to try to set up "Gangs" before asking him to return to a WB project.
Fox takes a pass
While Sony, Paramount and MGM flirted with handling domestic on the project, besides Miramax, the only other studio to make a concerted effort to mount the pic was 20th Century Fox. Fox eventually passed after weeks spent reworking the script and negotiating budget concessions. It's understood that the pic's budget was trimmed to approximately $82 million, but Fox still felt that, although the studio will have distributed three of DiCaprio's recent films ("Romeo + Juliet," "Titanic" and the upcoming "The Beach"), it was too big a risk to take.
With Fox's involvement in jeopardy of falling apart, it's understood that ICM's Ken Kamins stepped in to present AMG and Disney with the idea of Initial taking over co-financing responsibilities and shouldering the majority of the pic's costs.
With Kamins and Initial structuring an arrangement by which the domestic distributor would not have to take on as much as half of the pic’s budget, Disney was able to approach Miramax with the film. According to sources who have read the script, Miramax was Disney's best hope for distributing the "Gangs," while keeping the film and relationships with Scorsese and DiCaprio within the Disney family.
While AMG will not serve as a producer on "Gangs," the nascent management-production firm helped put together the project and had a lot riding on it: With two of its most prominent clients (DiCaprio and Scorsese) attached to a film that most studios, including Disney, were wary to take on because of its violent subject matter and its $90 million budget.
Scorsese and his "Age of Innocence" collaborator Jay Cocks have been developing the project for several years at Disney. The most recent Cocks draft of the screenplay is understood to have beefed up a role intended for Robert DeNiro, with another being targeted for Cameron Diaz. The pic takes place in 19th century New York and chronicles the city's original gangsters, the Irish and Italian immigrants who began organizing street gangs to fight for control of the city's streets.
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