We were all a little perplexed by this week’s news that Robert De Niro was going to reprise his “Taxi Driver” role as Travis Bickle for an Uber ad.
De Niro is 80 years old, and it’s not really necessary for him to do this. Then again, money talks and he recently had to go through a very expensive divorce, not mention becoming a father again. Uber probably paid him a lot of money to do this ad.
De Niro will be riffing on Bickle’s famous lines (“You talkin’ to me?”) in a series of spots being filmed in London this week. According to The Sun, “He’s going to be Travis Bickle, saying some phrases and playing up to it,” etc.
“Taxi Driver” screenwriter Paul Schrader is none-too-happy about De Niro reprising one of his most iconic characters, all for a quick buck. After Jeff Wells sent him The Sun article, he went on Facebook to voice his disapproval:
Ouch. Why Bob would do this is beyond my reckoning. But I haven't seen it. If I'm lucky I never will.
Of course, if you believe that Bickle died at the end of “Taxi Driver,” and there is evidence backing this theory up, then these ads don’t make an iota of sense — they take place in an alternate universe.
However, even if you’re one who still thinks Bickle wasn’t shot to death in that East Village residence then, still, what are the odds that, nearly 50 years later, he’d actually become an Uber driver? Dead or alive, Bickle was a troubled man destined for the loony bin.
Schrader is currently shooting “Oh, Canada” with Richard Gere and Jacob Elordi, but it’s good to know that he’s still taking time off to rant on Facebook.