Raging Bull II punches off in June; Casting underway![http://i.imgur.com/5ZX05.jpg]()
Casting is underway, and production begins in June, on “Raging Bull II”.
Based on the book “Raging Bull II” by Chris Anderson, Sharon McGehee and Jake LaMotta, the film is said to serve as a companion piece to the Martin Scorsese film and is both a prequel and sequel to the events depicted in the latter.
Robert De Niro is not reprising the role of LaMotta. William Forsythe, who played opposite De Niro in “Once Upon a Time in America” (and also reprised De Niro’s Al Capone role for a TV spin-off of “The Untouchables” in the early ’90s), has inherited the gloves.
Director Martin Guigui is currently scouting for :
YOUNG JAKE LAMOTTA
To play 14-20 years old, and already a tough bare knuckles fighter. He takes his father’s frequent beatings without a sound and makes money fighting much bigger opponents in back alley fights set up by his drunken, abusive father. Please submit over 18 to play younger OR emancipated
GUISSEPE LAMOTTA
Portrays 40s-70s, Jake’s father, a tough-looking Italian man, he’s a mean drunk who handcuffs and beats his son. He sets up the back alley fights with Jake and much older, stronger opponents. Later he refuses to help the grown-up Jake when he asks for money. Late in life, a frail old man, he reconciles with Jake just before his death. STAR NAME ONLY
RICK ROSSELLI
40s-50s, Jake’s childhood friend “Ricky”, now a tall, glib and charming wise guy type, wearing a very expensive suit. He’s done very well running the factory Jake gave him the money to start when he was champ. Later he produces and directs porn while trying to break into legit movie-making. He’s always got his eye on Jake and manages to find him work, first as a stand-up in seedy clubs, then as a bouncer in a mob-owned strip joint, finally putting him to work with other ex-champs in his legitimate movies. STAR NAME ONLY
SALLY CARLTON
30-40, Jake’s girlfriend and later his wife and Lisa’s mother. After years of dealing with Jake’s drinking and womanizing, she finds Jesus and takes Lisa with her to Florida, leaving Jake alone in New York. STAR NAME ONLY
FATHER O’DOULIN
60s, Head Master of the reform school, he tries to force young Jake to fellate him and gets punched in the crotch by Jake. Recognizable names: Great Cameo Role
RICARDO “RICKY” ROSSELLI
14, Jake’s best friend, arranges more back alley fights and splits the take with Jake. Please submit over 18 to play younger OR emancipated
STARLET
30-40, aging, yet still sexy, Hollywood movie starlet. From Vienna, she still speaks with a slight accent. She’s furious when Jake won’t sleep with her. Recognizable names: Great Cameo Role
“Raging Bull II” punches off in Los Angeles over June and July.
Martin Scorsese on Raging Bull II (?!) and Why He Prefers Vampires to Zombies
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GQ: So what do you make of this news that there's going to be a Raging Bull II?
Martin Scorsese: I have no idea. That's the second time I've heard it. The Argentinian director?
GQ: Yes, Martin Guigui. He directed National Lampoon's Cattle Call.
Martin Scorsese: Really?
GQ: How do you feel about it?
Martin Scorsese: Oh, nothing I could say about it except I don't think I could revisit the material, as they say. I think we said what we had to say at that time. All of us moved on. Different aspects of the same story basically keep making the rounds. You know?
GQ: What aspects?
Martin Scorsese: Rise and fall and self-destruction and the suffering and somehow coming through, in some cases. Coming through the suffering so that you change in a way. I don't know. It's dealing with yourself, really. Ultimately, at the end of Raging Bull, he's looking in a mirror and he's at comfort with himself, to a certain extent. He's not fighting, he's not beating himself up. That's all. So, I don't know where they're going to go.
GQ: To me that film felt so complete.
Martin Scorsese: Yeah. I think it is in terms of the time and place that it covered from him on stage, that's entertainment to him at the mirror at the end of the story and telling those aspects of his life. Yes. I really don't know what Raging Bull II would be.GQ: I think it's just crazy. I mean you see that happen now with sequels. But it's usually with something like Twilight, where are all kinds of vampire-related spin-offs.Martin Scorsese: The vampire thing always works for some reason. Always works.
GQ: I would love to hear your theory on that. What do you think it is about vampires?Martin Scorsese: I happen to like vampires more than zombies.
GQ: Why?Martin Scorsese: Well, a vampire, quite honestly, you could have a conversation with.
GQ: That's true.Martin Scorsese: He has a sexuality.
GQ: And you don't want to get kissed by zombie.Martin Scorsese: Yeah. I mean the undead thing... Zombies, what are you going to do with them? Just keep chopping them up, shooting at them, shooting at them. It's a whole other thing that apparently means a great deal to our culture and our society. There are many, many books written about it and many movies. I saw one in London when I was doing
Hugo. I saw one late at night one weekend. It was called
Colin, by a young filmmaker [Marc Price]. He shot it, I think, digitally by himself, edited it himself. It was savage. It had an energy that took the zombie idea to another level. Really interesting filmmaking. Disturbing.
GQ: I'll check it out. Your career has been so unpredictable. I think people would have had a hard time imagining that you would do a kids' film before you did Hugo. Some directors want to check off these genre boxes: a comedy, a horror film, musical, a sci-fi film. Do you think about it like that?Martin Scorsese: I thought that in the '70s. I tried. I really tried. I mean, we did an exploitation film right away:
Boxcar Bertha, which was in the new genre of
Bonnie and Clyde at the time. Now that's gone.
Mean Streets was
Means Streets. If anything, its lineage was as a film because it was really a story about friends and myself and my father. In any event, it had ties to the early gangster films of Warner Brothers in the 1930s. So, that's about it. But the rest, I tried.
New York, New York, I tried something there. But I didn't know. I mean Francis Coppola at the time said you have to stay within the conventions of the genre. I said, "I'd like to change it." He said, "It's not going to work."
GQ: Ha! And then you went on to make films like The King of Comedy!Martin Scorsese: Right. Well, what happened with
New York, New York is that the audience didn't accept it because it didn't stay within the conventions of the genre because of what happens with the couple at the end. But it's different. It has its own nature. At that time, the audience didn't want to see it and that was the end of it. I think a week later
Stars Wars opened. So, once I did
Raging Bull I said, "No more." I said I'd love to do a Western. The closest I got to was
Gangs of New York. It's an Eastern. It's like a Western: You've got all the scenes. New kid in town, walks into a bar. It's all the same basically, only it's the Wild East of New York. Crazier than the west.
GQ: That era is amazing.
Martin Scorsese: I didn't even scrape the surface of it, believe me. All around here. Right in the downtown. That's it. I said, "No. I just want to go with the stories that kind of excite me and can keep me going on the set and going in that trailer, and going out of the trailer." Then I'll deal with the screenings.
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2 please let my lj cut work...
