Martin Scorsese, 83, is currently shooting “What Happens at Night” in Prague, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio. Is it conceivable for him to shoot back-to-back films?
It’s not as though he hasn’t attempted this recently. Back in 2024, Variety reported that Scorsese planned to shoot “Sinatra” and “The Life of Jesus” during the summer and fall, before those plans fell through—largely due to rights issues for the former and script rewrites for the latter.
By the looks of it, he may be attempting the same feat again, albeit with two different projects.
When “What Happens at Night” wraps in May, Scorsese will have roughly eight months for post-production before potentially hopping on board another shoot. Casting grids have started to appear for Scorsese’s “Midnight Vendetta” in USA Production, Production List and Production Weekly. All three list a December shoot in New Orleans for the film.
Scorsese’s tentatively titled “Midnight Vendetta,” which had its script submitted by the great Eric Roth (“The Insider,” “Munich”) last year, will tackle the Mafia’s arrival in New Orleans around 1890, marking the first major foothold of organized Italian crime in the United States.
Sicilian immigrants, many fleeing poverty and violence back home, settled in the city’s port neighborhoods, bringing with them old-world networks and rivalries. Tensions quickly escalated between local authorities and the growing Italian community, culminating in the infamous murder of Police Chief David Hennessy in 1890.
Scorsese currently has a wide array of projects on his plate, and this rumored second shoot in 2026 wouldn’t surprise me one bit. I go back to his 2023 quote, given in an interview with Deadline, in which he admitted, “I’m old. I want to tell stories, but there’s no more time.” If that’s his mindset, then I would imagine fitting in as many stories as possible, while his health is still intact, would be the plan going forward.
Remember when DC Studios told us Steven Soderbergh was coming in for "the final weeks of principal photography" on "The Batman Part II"? Yeah, now it's months.