I’m loathe to even report something as completely unsubstantiated as the rumor that’s currently floating around, but this one is too bizarre to ignore.
There are reports, shall we say, floating out of the Berlin Film Festival and suggesting that Lars Von Trier and fucking Martin Scorsese are discussing the filming of a remake of Taxi Driver, with Robert DeNiro reprising his famous role.
So here’s the thing, the “source” of this is a german magazine called Ekko, and the story quickly spread across the web, before being picked up by Empire Online. Apparently a representative of von Trier has made a “no comment pending further announcement” statement somewhere, but even that seems iffy.
If this is all complete pulled-out-of-the-air bullshit (and it very possibly is), whoever did the bullshitting made the wise choice of involving the only filmmaker who could possibly conceive of a remake to Taxi Driver, pitch it to Marty, and actually spark a film project. Lars Von Trier has engaged in remake exercises with his peers before, using his own and other’s material. As you might expect, when von Trier is involved it’s never a straightforward retelling, it’s never Hollywood, and it’s never anything of which the word “reboot” could ever come within 100 feet.
The reports make it sound like Scorsese would be actively involved, which turns this into some version of some fucked up 30-years-later Funny Games shit as well. As if this needs another layer of “huh?”
Again, rumor rumor rumor. Until it’s a year from now and von Trier has made some wildly genius remake of fucking Taxi Driver that nobody ever expected.
Weird way to start the day.
(Thanks to Bluelouboyle for starting my day with this.)