Martin Scorsese cut off Warner Bros after “terrible” idea for The Departed franchise
Warner Bros.Martin Scorsese has revealed how his partnership with Warner Bros. came to an end after the studio tried to turn The Departed into a franchise.
Scorsese worked with Warner Bros. on some of his best movies: Mean Streets, After Hours, Goodfellas, and The Aviator.
Any sort of partnership between the two moviemaking forces crescendoed with The Departed, the director’s Oscar-winning crime epic starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon. Few consider it his best work, but you’d be hard-pressed to argue against it as a defining movie of his filmography, and it finally saw him win Best Director and Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
That sort of long-awaited success could have paved the way for more, but Scorsese couldn’t see himself working with Warner Bros. after its idea for a new franchise. Spoilers for The Departed to follow…
Martin Scorsese ditched Warner Bros after pitch for The Departed franchise
The Departed follows DiCaprio and Damon’s unwitting dueling moles; one is an undercover police officer who infiltrates Jack Nicholson’s mob, the other is a cop who’s actually been part of the mob for years.
It ends with a bloody, shocking flourish: just as DiCaprio apprehends Damon and puts the cuffs on him, he’s shot and killed by another mole, whom Damon then kills. In the final scene, Damon’s character arrives home only to be confronted by Mark Wahlberg, who murders him in an act of vengeance for Martin Sheen’s brutal death earlier in the movie.
There are no loose ends; it’s an emphatic ending that doesn’t leave much room. However, if Warner Bros. had its way, one of the leads would have survived.
In a new interview with GQ, Scorsese recalled his difficult experience working with the studio on The Aviator, which then led to The Departed. “What they wanted was a franchise. It wasn’t about a moral issue of a person living or dying,” he said, explaining how execs wanted a character to live in the event of a sequel moving ahead.
“And then the studio guys walked out and they were very sad, because they just didn’t want that movie. They wanted the franchise. Which means: I can’t work here anymore.”
Fortunately, his fans agree that it was a bad idea. “Oh no Marty that sounds terrible lol,” one wrote. “He was right to do it, not everything needs to be a franchise Hollywood,” another tweeted. “Hahahahahahahaha not everything has to be a franchise or a spin off. Glad Marty stopped working with them. The Departed is a masterpiece and his masterpiece,” a third wrote.
Others have made a similar point: The Departed is a remake of Infernal Affairs, which turned into a trilogy. “It WAS a remake of a film that had two sequels. I prefer The Departed to Infernal Affairs but a pretty wide margin, but it wasn’t necessarily a completely out-of-pocket suggestion,” one wrote.
You can find out more about Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese’s next movie, here.
