Since you’re all reading The Film Stage for our cinematic history lessons, I’ve got a good one for you: in 1982, Martin Scorsese followed his supremely awesome Raging Bull with a bizarro flick called The King of Comedy. Starring Robert De Niro (of course – he was Marty’s go-to guy back then), and written by Paul D. Zimmerman, The King of Comedy was a prophetic treatise on the American obsession with fame, with DeNiro nailing it as a mentally disturbed wannabe comedian who kidnaps late-night talk show host Jerry Lewis (never better) in exchange for one night on his show. It’s the kind of amazing movie that’s relatively unknown beyond obsessive movie nerds, but it’s high on the list of either artists’ best films.
Now, Showbiz 411 reports that Fight Club producer Art Linson has penned a script called The Comedian, and wants De Niro to play an “insult comic described as Don Rickles meets Joan Rivers,” and wants Scorsese to direct. The part may be “a serious role with Oscar potential” – and we all know that hyperbole is so totally foreign to Hollywood – but the chances of getting Scorsese on board are iffy. De Niro, though – he’s coming off of the abysmal Little Fockers, but also a terrific, back-to-form performance in the underrated Stone. I think it’s likely he’ll seriously consider this one. A few years back, De Niro was undergoing a hush-hush cancer treatment, rendering him virtually uninsurable and probably explaining his presence in the Fockers sequels and nonsense like Hide and Seek.
He’s been popping up more and more these days, and The Comedian could prove a nice outlet for his considerable comic chops, mingled with his nearly unparalleled dramatic presence. Scorsese, though – he’s got Hugo Cabret on the way, with the Jesuit drama Silence coming next, and probably his Sinatra biopic after that – is he way past due for another comedy? His many gangster films aside, Scorsese is a director who likes to do new things. Linson’s Comedian may be “quite different than Rupert Pupkin,” but will it be different enough to pique the Master’s interest? If we don’t see Scorsese and De Niro teams for this, there is also the planned return to gangster films with The Irishman, which also includes Joe Pesci, Al Pacino and possibly Harvey Keitel.
Personally, I’m looking forward to Scorsese and Lars von Trier‘s remake of the perversely fascinating The Five Obstructions.
Does The Comedian sound like something you’d see? Have you see The King of Comedy? Do I need to personally add it to your Netflix queue?