The Martin Scorsese movie Steven Spielberg traded in for ‘Schindler’s List’
Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg may have earned their respective statuses as two of cinema’s greatest-ever directors by becoming synonymous with very different types of movies, but they’ve flirted with the same project on occasion.
Whereas the former rose to prominence with his street-level gangster stories before showcasing his versatility through a number of different mediums including jet-black comedy, prestige drama, and spiritualism, the latter had the proverbial rocket strapped to his back by becoming the go-to guy for blockbuster escapism who repeatedly raised the bar in terms of how popular mainstream films could be.
Of course, they’re both Academy Award-winning icons and legends, but a fortuitous set of circumstances ended up with a Spielberg-developed production ultimately being directed by Scorsese, and vice versa. However, the urban legend that followed the trade-off around isn’t quite as simple as the case of Hollywood swapsies was first believed to be.
The short version that entered industry folklore is basically that Scorsese needed a hit after the late 1980s hadn’t been particularly kind to him from a commercial perspective, whereas Spielberg wanted to win an Oscar to definitively step out of his populist wheelhouse. As the story went, they traded Cape Fear for Schindler’s List and the rest was history, but that wasn’t quite the case.
What’s undeniably correct is that Scorsese was in the midst of developing an adaptation of Thomas Keneally’s Schindler’s Ark with screenwriter Steve Zaillian, at the same time Spielberg was toying with the idea of remaking Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum’s 1962 psychological thriller Cape Fear.
Producer Michael Ovits was instrumental in the switcheroo, and he told The Hollywood Reporter that it was a straight swap: “Steven would give Marty Cape Fear and executive produce it, which would help from the standpoint of audience appeal,” he said. “And Marty would give Steven all the work he did on Schindler’s, plus the underlying rights. We closed that deal verbally, all shook hands, and then the hard part began.”
However, Spielberg disagreed with that recollection. “I would never have done that,” he countered. “Marty would never have done that. There was never a trade.” It can’t be argued that each filmmaker ended up with the right project, although that’s not to say Spielberg’s Cape Fear or Scorsese’s Schindler’s List would have been any better or worse than what audiences ended up getting.
After all, it’s well-known that the movie which finally won the Jurassic Park mastermind his Oscar for ‘Best Director’ and won the prize for ‘Best Picture’ was a story very close to his heart, so it’s hard to imagine him begging Scorsese to hand it over in exchange for Cape Fear and a guaranteed box office hit. They both did very well out of switching it up, though, with audiences the real winners at the end of the day.
