Monahan, Scorsese & DiCaprio? Sort of

Apparently there's nothing like an Academy Award to put a writer in high demand. William Monahan's now attached to two interesting projects, and it's hard to tell which one might come first.

According to Variety, he's ready to reteam with Martin Scorsese (big shock) on something called "The Long Play." Described as a rock 'n' roll epic, it follows two friends through 40 years in the music business, from the early days of R&B to contemporary hip-hop. So maybe not rock 'n' roll, but definitely music, a subject Scorsese should have a lot of fun with.

The project has its genesis in the Rolling Stones doco Scorsese is now wrapping up (and which I have no desire to see.) Mick Jagger came up with the idea and pitched it to Scorsese, who bit (I really need to get some more powerful friends.)

Depending on who you ask on any given day, of course, Scorses also has his hands in any number of other pies. He's already expressed interest in:

"Silence", a movie about Jesuit missionaries in 17th century Japan, set to star Javier Bardem.
"The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt", another biopic starring Leo DiCaprio.
And, the most recent before "Long Play," a flick based on Brian Selznick's children's novel "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," about a 12-year-old orphan who lives in the walls of a Paris train station in 1930 and a mystery involving the boy, his late father and a robot.

Sounds like he has plenty of options, and they all sound intriguing. I think I'd most like to see "Silence," because the subject is just fascinating, but wherever he turns next I'll definitely follow.

Monahan, meanwhile, is also again looking to Hong Kong, at least according to a competing article in the Hollywood Reporter.

Warner Bros. has acquired another thriller from the team that created "Infernal Affairs," titled "Confessions of Pain." Monahan has signed on to script the remake, and Leo Dicaprio is back to star. "Pain," which I haven't yet seen (that will hopefully change soon) follows two close friends, one a police detective and the other a private detective, who team to investigate the murder of the cop's father-in-law. As the investigation proceeds, according to The Hollywood Reporter, "they uncover evidence that shows that nothing is as it appears."

Part of me definitely wishes they'd stop with this remake madness, but I love the Hong Kong flicks, so I'll have to wait and see (and, as soon as I'm done writing this, see if I can get the original from Netflix.)


DVD pick of the week

A lot of good titles this week, but what D.A. Pennebaker has taken on in revisiting "Don't Look Back" is definitely my pick of the week.

If you haven't seen the rock doco, which follows Bob Dylan on tour in England in 1965, this new edition is a great chance to rectify that omission. For the "65 Tour Deluxe Edition," out on DVD today, Pennebaker created a new documentary, "Bob Dylan 65 Revisited," compiled from more than 20 hours of unused footage from the 1965 shoot in his personal archive and shaped into a look back on the artist 40 years later.

I've become increasingly wary of DVD "special editions" that don't add much more than a deleted scene or two, but this one seems to be the real deal.

Runners up: Also out on DVD this week, the very smart romantic comedy "Stranger Than Fiction," Terry Gilliam's "Tideland," "Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny," and finally "The Heart of the Game," a documentary that follows seven years in the life of a high school girls basketball coach. I'll definitely be renting all of those.