Well, this is certainly interesting. Of course we’ve been hearing reports of Martin Scorsese and Lars Von Trier teaming up for a while, with the bizarre news that they were, together, going to remake Taxi Driver. This sounded like a really terrible idea, because there are very few perfect films but Taxi Driver is one of them. In relief it turned out that wasn’t true. However they are planning to remake something together and it will be one of Von Trier’s films that they will retool.
The pair are set to remake The Five Obstructions. The film is a documentary made by Von Trier about a man making a film 5 times and each time changing the rules to which he had to adhere to. So in one version no edit could be longer than 12 frames and each time Von Trier would interview the filmmaker, Jordan Leth, about the process. The same will happen with this. Martin Scorsese will this time be tasked with making a film 5 times and then be interviewed be Von Trier about the process.
It’s an interesting concept and I am rather pleased that it is Scorsese doing the filmmaking and not Von Trier. I do quite like Von Trier but when he makes a film which he needs to conform to rules he comes up with something putrid and self indulgent like The Idiots or The Boss of It All. It is rumoured that Scorsese will perhaps remake his insanely creepy 1967 short The Big Shave.
The project is a fair way off from completion or a start date. Scorsese has got Hugo Cabret to come out yet and then he will be shooting Jesuit priest movie Silence in the first half of 2012 with Daniel Day-Lewis. The shooting on the Five Obstructions remake will start sometime after that. (The Hollywood Reporter)