Scorsese-Spielberg Match Called Off

The celebrity death match pitting the lightweight Leonardo DiCaprio against the heavyweight Leonardo DiCaprio has been called off.

Miramax has decided to move Martin Scorsese’s costly and long-in-the-making epic “Gangs of New York,” which features DiCaprio in a central role, from Dec. 25 to an earlier date in December that had not been determined by midday Thursday. That means Scorsese’s gritty tale of gang warfare in 19th century Manhattan will not go head-to-head with Steven Spielberg’s “Catch Me if You Can,” a holiday confection that also stars DiCaprio.

“There are challenges to having the two films on the same date,” Miramax spokesman Matthew Hiltzik said. “Whatever the eventual date will be, we’re extremely confident in the film. This is one of the great times of the year to release the film, and there’s plenty of opportunity for this and other quality projects to perform well.”

At DreamWorks, Miramax’s decision brought relief after months of tension over the clashing dates. “We didn’t like having to share Leo’s audience with that movie, and we also didn’t think it was seemly to have two of America’s greatest directors square off against each other,” DreamWorks executive Walter Parkes said.

Indeed, the two directors have a long and complicated friendship. Their vastly different styles are on display in these two films, which feature dramatically different DiCaprios. In “Gangs,” he is bulked up to play a grubby street fighter. He is trimmed down and squeaky clean for his turn in “Catch Me if You Can” as an early-’60s teenage con artist who poses as a pilot, doctor and lawyer.

The holiday season is packed with high-profile movies, and finding a new date for “Gangs” could prove difficult. On Dec. 6, Warner Bros. releases “Analyze That,” the sequel to its hit comedy with Billy Crystal and Robert De Niro. The following weekend, Paramount launches the latest installment of “Star Trek.” And on the 18th, New Line will open “The Two Towers,” the second episode in its “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

Many in the industry are wondering how Miramax can handle its extraordinary number of films set for holiday release. Aside from “Gangs,” a few films have generated early buzz. “Chicago,” a musical starring Renee Zellweger and Richard Gere, already is being mentioned as an Oscar contender. Other Miramax openings include “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” directed by George Clooney; Roberto Benigni’s “Pinocchio”; and “The Quiet American,” a Philip Noyce-directed drama.

Industry executives said head-to-head competition between “Gangs of New York” and “Catch Me if You Can” wouldn’t have been good for either project. But most believed that the underdog in such a contest would have been Miramax’s “Gangs,” with its violence and length--approaching two hours and 40 minutes. And the stakes are high. The picture has a budget substantially in excess of $100 million, making it by far the most expensive film Miramax has made. It’s arriving a year late.

DreamWorks’ “Catch Me if You Can” cost about half as much, and Spielberg shot it in 55 days. At about two hours, it is shorter than “Gangs” and considerably sweeter. And it pairs Spielberg with Tom Hanks, one of the most bankable stars. Finally, there’s DiCaprio, looking much as he did when he made legions of female fans swoon in “Titanic.”

“Gangs of New York” doesn’t lack star power. Along with DiCaprio, it has Cameron Diaz and Daniel Day-Lewis, whose performance may put him in Oscar contention. But the characters have an eccentric period look, and they are coated with meticulously re-created 19th century grime. As one producer observed, “Nobody’s cute in ‘Gangs of New York.’ ”

Miramax spokesman Hiltzik says early tracking shows that “Gangs” will appeal to a broad audience. “An action film with romance starring Leo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz and Daniel Day-Lewis, directed by Martin Scorsese with music by U2, has tremendous, widespread appeal,” he says. Research shows that the potential audience has an exceptionally high awareness of the film before Miramax has run the first ad for it.

Tom Sherak, a partner at Revolution Studios, thinks “Gangs” can perform strongly, especially now that it has been moved. “It looks like something that I want to see,” he says. “It has a cachet to it.” But he expects that the picture, with its dark themes and violence, will appeal primarily to big-city audiences, and that would limit the box office potential to about $100 million, he says. “It can’t do as much business as a picture that plays everywhere,” he predicts.

“Catch Me if You Can,” on the other hand, looks like a film with appeal in the heartland as well as in urban areas. “If a movie is going to work big, it works from the middle [of the country] out,” Sherak says.

Most industry watchers were surprised that Miramax took as long as it did to move the film to a different date. One prominent agent speculated that Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein was reluctant to move “Gangs” in part because of the ongoing rivalry between his company and DreamWorks. The two have engaged in bitter Academy Awards battles for several years.

There were rumors that DiCaprio was so upset over the conflict that he threatened to back away from publicity chores for either movie unless some accommodation was reached. Ken Sunshine, the star’s publicist, says those reports were “completely bogus.”

Ultimately, says one prominent agent, Weinstein had no choice but to yield. “Harvey would alienate everybody in the whole world if he were trying to throw another Leo DiCaprio movie out there on Christmas Day,” he says. “It’s blood sport setting these dates, but there is a certain amount of cooperation that has to go on with these studios when it comes to releasing movies with the same stars.”

Miramax contends that Weinstein set “Gangs of New York” for release Dec. 25 after DreamWorks principal Jeffrey Katzenberg assured him that “Catch Me if You Can” would open in November. DreamWorks denies that Katzenberg made such a promise. But if Weinstein had consulted a release schedule, he would have seen that the Spielberg movie was parked on Dec. 25 when he announced the “Gangs” date. Miramax contends that Weinstein set that date without checking. On Thursday, Katzenberg said, “We’re going to root for them in every way we can.”

One source with knowledge of Weinstein’s actions says he and Scorsese hastily agreed on the Christmas date just before the Cannes Film Festival in the face of mounting media interest in the progress of the much-delayed “Gangs.” “I think they figured they’d work it out or they’d win,” this insider says. “It was a mistake.” (Scorsese’s publicist, Lois Smith, said Scorsese never involves himself in scheduling decisions. And Hiltzik said the date had been set weeks in advance of Cannes.)

DreamWorks says it never considered moving “Catch Me if You Can” from its date. But the studio clearly wanted “Gangs” to move. To that end, Spielberg did something he had never done in his storied career: He cut together 14 minutes of footage from his film to show to selected members of the press. In other words, DreamWorks flashed its poker hand to show that it wasn’t bluffing.

Meanwhile, Spielberg made a friendly gesture toward his old friend Scorsese. When Scorsese couldn’t get a Miramax-provided jet to the recent Hollywood Film Festival Awards, Spielberg offered his plane. Scorsese--still toiling over “Gangs of New York” in the editing room--decided not to attend.

The two directors and their projects have undergone a series of twists. “Gangs” is a project that Scorsese had dreamed about making for decades. Spielberg, on the other hand, did not intend to direct “Catch Me if You Can.” At one time, DreamWorks wanted Lasse Hallstrom to take the helm. But the studio couldn’t strike a deal with Miramax, which would have had to release Hallstrom to take the assignment. When DiCaprio committed to “Catch Me if You Can,” DreamWorks delayed the start of production so that he could finish filming “Gangs.” During that interlude, Spielberg decided to direct the film, and the confrontation between the two directors inadvertently was set into motion.

Spielberg and Scorsese have a long-standing relationship that an executive who has worked with both describes as “friendly but strained.” When both were starting out, Spielberg was the one who seemed to be at a disadvantage, according to Peter Biskind, author of “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.” “Steven said to me at one point that when he was coming up, he wanted to be Marty,” Biskind said. “He wanted to be an auteur.” Spielberg, who had worked in television, was “too studio” for Scorsese’s crowd, Biskind said. According to Biskind, Spielberg was so concerned about his artistic bona fides that he briefly decided not to direct “Jaws.” But after he established himself as a box office titan, it was Scorsese’s turn to be concerned about his failure to make a highly commercial film, according to executives familiar with both directors.

In the early ‘90s, the two briefly switched roles. Three executives familiar with the episode give the following account: After Spielberg tried to develop “Schindler’s List” without success, he turned the project over to Scorsese, who commissioned screenwriter Steven Zaillian to tackle it. Zaillian came up with a successful approach, and Spielberg wanted the project back. Spielberg asked Scorsese to attend a reading of another script--a reworking of the 1962 thriller “Cape Fear.” Scorsese traded “Schindler’s List” for the presumably more commercial “Cape Fear” remake. As an incentive, one of the executives said, Scorsese’s deal gave him a percentage of the film’s gross for the first time--the kind of deal that had long been a matter of routine for Spielberg. The directors’ representatives would not comment.

The bargain paid off for Scorsese--to a point. “Cape Fear,” which pulled in $77 million at the box office, was the highest-grossing film he has directed. But “Schindler” grossed $96 million. And in a moment of considerable irony, Spielberg won the Academy Award for best picture and director--both honors that have eluded Scorsese to this day.