Martin Scorsese’s Frank Sinatra Biopic Gets New Screenwriter
Hunger Games screenwriter Billy Ray has signed on to pen the script for Martin Scorsese‘s long-simmering Frank Sinatra biopic, Deadline reports. Ray takes over for Phil Alden Robinson, who was initially hired to write the screenplay when the film was announced back in 2009.
There’s still no word on who will play Sinatra, or even when filming will start. Scorsese is currently shooting The Wolf of Wall Street, an adaptation of Jordan Belfort’s memoir that stars Leonardo DiCaprio (who was initially rumored to be a contender to portray Sinatra).
Whether Scorsese follows Wolf with the Sinatra biopic remains to be seen. The director has yet to commit to his next film and has several others in development, including an adaptation of the Shusaku Endo novel Silence and The Irishman, a mob flick that would reunite the director with Robert De Niro.
As for Ray, the film’s new screenwriter has plenty on his plate to go with the untitled biopic: he’s also reportedly working on a remake of The Secret in Their Eyes, an untitled project with J.J. Abrams and The Thin Man. He also wrote about Somali pirates in the script for Captain Phillips, which stars Tom Hanks and just finished shooting.