‘Silence’ Silenced? Producer Sues Martin Scorsese For Choosing ‘The Wolf Of Wall Street’ As His Next Film
We’ve waited for quite some time forMartin Scorseseto make his “Jesuit drama"Silence, based on the novel byShusako Endonovel. He had planned to do the movie almost fifteen years ago, and it has remained on the director’s “pending” slate ever since. After the release ofHugo, we thoughtSilencewould be next.
So did the film’s producer, Vittorio Cecchi Gori of Cecchi Gori Pictures, who was surprised to read in the trades that Scorsese would instead be makingThe Wolf of Wall Streetas his next film. Checchi Gori has now sued Scorsese for breach of contract, among other claims. So the big question is: willSilencehappen at all, or might it be forced into being? The terms of this lawsuit seem simple at first, but get serious when you dig into the details. Short version:Silenceis already a very expensive niche movie before a frame of film has even been shot.
The text of the lawsuit ishere, viaDeadline. But there’s more to the story than just that, as this isn’t the first timeSilencehas been involved in legal issues.
Vittorio Cecchi Gori and Giannani Nunnari of Cecci Gori originally had the rights toSilence, but the two producers split and Nunnari ended up with the rights toSilence. After the very early plan to make the film post-Kundundidn’t happen, Scorsese paid out some money to Nunnari. And that isn’t all. From the current suit:
If this suit goes through, all told Scorsese and his company will have spent millions on a film he hasn’t made yet. $6.5m in fees, plus money paid years ago, plus whatever all the various back-end profit percentages turn out to be. Hollywood bookkeeping being what it is, I can’t even guess those figures. And after all this, I’m not even certain who owns the rights to Silence — CGP, Nunnari, Scorsese, or even GK Films.
