Martin Scorsese may be revered as one of our greatest living filmmakersbut he often had to fight tooth and nail to bring his visions to the big screen. This is largely due to the box office. Yes, “Raging Bull,” “The King of Comedy,” and “Goodfellas” are considered masterpieces, but they weren’t theatrical hits. So when, after being continually passed over for Oscar recognition, he decided to make his magnum opus “Gangs of New York,” almost every studio in town refused to finance his dream.
It wasn’t like he pitched the project towards the film industry. Alberto Grimaldi, the famous Italian producer of classics by Federico Fellini, Sergio Leone and Bernardo Bertolucci, had released an advertisement announcing the production of the film in 1977. But when the New Hollywood revolution died down with the banking failure of “Heaven’s Gate” by Michael Cimino (a great movie, no matter how much money it lost), there just wasn’t much enthusiasm for “Gangs of New York.”
This changed briefly in the early 1990s when Universal considered greenlighting the project with a budget of $30 million, but it never got past the starting line and was eventually pawned off to Disney who , under the direction of family studio head Joe Roth, would not. touch the material extremely violent. Finally, in 1999, Miramax, which had just taken the Best Picture Oscar away from “Saving Private Ryan” with “Shakespeare in Love,” took the plunge in part because they thought they could get Scorsese the Oscar that had been denied him for decades. .
Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein scraped together enough funding to ensure Scorsese could build his 1860s sets on the backlot of the legendary Italian film studio Cinecittà. But at some point he started saying no to some of Scorsese’s requests for set design. When Scorsese needed more and couldn’t get it from his financiers, he turned to one of the biggest movie stars on the planet.
The church built by Tom Cruise
It was Harvey Weinstein’s idea to take Tom Cruise – who was promoting the horror film “The Others,” which he produced for Miramax – to Rome to visit his director of “The Color money” on the set of the film he had directed. I’ve been trying to do this for over 20 years. It was a surprise visit intended to delight the Italian-American maestro, but after seeing Cruise, he filed a complaint. Scorsese and production designer Dante Ferretti wanted to build a church with a full interior that would allow the director to pan 360 degrees. Weinstein was against it, but in Scorsese’s mind it was essential. Cruise was moved by the director’s call.
In an article from Entertainment Weekly about the film’s production, Scorsese said: “Harv was concerned about the cost of the church interior. He was asking question after question. Finally, Tom said, ‘Will you please give Marty’s church? He needs it.'”
Put in the hot seat, Weinstein, who currently serves a total of 39 years in prison for rape and sexual assault, coughed up the $100,000 needed to complete construction of the church. The production called the sacred structure “St. Thomas.” The film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 2003 but left empty-handed. Scorsese would ultimately win best picture and best director for 2006’s “The Departed.”
