As Martin Scorsese gears up for his two forthcoming music-related films, a George Harrison documentary and Frank Sinatra biopic, the latter project is gaining another round of speculative buzz over the potential actors he might tap to play Ol’ Blue Eyes. We previously joked that if Leo DiCaprio is spotted taking vocal lessons, he must be stopped, but it looks like that may not be necessary. In an interview with Indian newspaper The Hindu (via the Playlist), Scorsese revealed his dream picks for the film: “I’[ve] yet to spot the actor who can bring back Frank Sinatra alive on screen. My choice is Al Pacino, and Robert De Niro as Dean Martin.”
At first glance, the Pacino choice struck me as odd, but given his recent transformation as Jack Kevorkian in the HBO film You Don’t Know Jack, it would be fun to see Serpico take on Sinatra’s later years. (Not to mention I’d kill to hear Pacino give a dramatic reading of this letter aloud.)
That being said, however, the initial script, which Scorsese says is “ready to go,” depicts various periods of time from the Chairman of the Board’s life, so perhaps we shouldn’t count DiCaprio, George Clooney, or any of the other Sinatra hopefuls out just yet. Who knows, perhaps George Michael may take a swing at playing his former mentor.