“I understood that guy to a T”: The biopic Tom Hanks almost made with Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese is no stranger to a biopic. Over the course of his filmmaking career, the director has taken on the real-life tales of boxers, billionaires, and even the Dalai Lama, adapting each story to screen with unparalleled prowess. From the stylised corruption of Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street to perhaps the greatest gangster movie of all time, Goodfellas, the director knows his way around a true story.
While Scorsese may have mastered the art of the biopic from behind the camera, Tom Hanks has achieved the same feat in front of it. Amidst intermittent appearances in the beloved Toy Story series, Hanks has dipped into the biopic realm more than a few times. From a role opposite Leonardo DiCaprio’s elusive Frank Abagnale Jr. in Stephen Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can to a stellar leading performance as the titular pilot in Clint Eastwood’s Sully, Hanks is more than familiar with the art of real-life adaptation.
A biographical collaboration between the two, then, seems like a sure-fire success. Between Scorsese’s ability to tell a true story with both style and substance, and Hanks’ aptitude for embodying his characters, real or fictional, it seems like a match made in heaven. The director and the actor thought so too. Hanks and Scorsese linked up to try and bring about a biopic about the multi-talented and effortlessly suave Dean Martin.
When prompted to speak about the failed project during a conversation with the New York Times, Hanks went off on a lengthy ramble about the Rat Pack member, showing off the kind of real interest, knowledge and understanding that would have made him the perfect casting. “I didn’t see Dean Martin as being the cynical presence in the Rat Pack,” he began, “I think he’s the only one who got it.”
As Hanks goes on to divulge his fully-formed opinion on the entertainer, pulling out impossibly specific stories about him at will, it’s easy to imagine how he could have provided a really well-developed depiction of Martin under Scorsese’s direction. “That’s why I wanted to do it,” Hanks summarised half-way through his impassioned response, “I felt like I understood that guy to a T.”
It certainly seems that way. Between his research into Martin and his belief in the “character,” Hanks would have delivered a stellar performance as the ‘Ain’t That A Kick In The Head’ singer. It’s easy to picture how Scorsese, too, could have brought the perfect style and swagger to Martin’s story.
The director knows music almost as well as he knows film, and he’s more than familiar with telling tales of performers and entertainers. Throughout his directorial career, Scorsese has has helmed a concert film for The Band and directed several musical documentaries about some of the all-time greats, from Bob Dylan to George Harrison. He even has a biopic about another member of the Rat Pack in the works, Frank Sinatra.
Unfortunately, despite how perfect the pairing and project may have seemed from an outside perspective, it never came to fruition. Perhaps one day Hanks and Scorsese will find their way back to one another, to tell Martin’s story or on an entirely new project. Until then, Scorsese enthusiasts will have to get their music biopic fill from his upcoming Sinatra project.
Listen to ‘Ain’t That A Kick In The Head’ by Dean Martin below.
