Warner Bros. wanted The Departed to start a franchise – but Martin Scorsese fought back
Martin Scorsese has revealed that the studio behind his crime thriller The Departed tried to change the movie's ending so it would have franchise potential – but the filmmaker fought back.
According to a new interview with GQ, Warner Bros. asked Scorsese if one of the two main characters in the film, an undercover cop played by Leonardo DiCaprio and a mob boss spy in the police force played by Matt Damon, could survive the end of the film in order to appear in further sequels.
"What they wanted was a franchise. It wasn't about a moral issue of a person living or dying," Scorsese told the publication, recalling a test screening where both the audience and the filmmakers walked out feeling "ecstatic" about the movie. "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."
The movie, released in 2006, won Scorsese his first and only Oscar for Best Director, and the film also won Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay (it's a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong movie Infernal Affairs). The cast also includes Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, and Vera Farmiga.
Next up for Scorsese is Killers of the Flower Moon, marking another collaboration between the director and DiCaprio. The film, which follows the brutal spree of killings in Oklahoma's Osage County in the '20s, arrives on the big screen on October 20.
While we wait, check out our guide to the other most highly anticipated movie release dates coming our way in 2023.
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