Having an insurance director is not uncommon in Hollywood. Aging filmmakers, in case a health issue arises, sometimes need to have one. The one example that immediately comes to mind is when Paul Thomas Anderson acted as an insurance director by shadowing Robert Altman on 2006’s “A Prairie Home Companion.” Altman was ill at the time, battling leukemia, and passed away during post-production on the film.
It seems like PTA might have done that again, this time for another one of his cinematic idols: Martin Scorsese.
A Reddit post is going viral, this one concerning PTA’s extensive involvement in Scorsese’s “What Happens at Night,” which was shot earlier this year. Much like he did with Altman, PTA was shadowing Scorsese for insurance purposes and also, I’m sure, because he adores Scorsese. He was basically the standby director.
Not just that, but this same person confirms what had previously been reported in March: PTA rewrote the entire script for “What Happens at Night.” Now, whether he actually gets credited as the main screenwriter remains to be seen, but on the film’s Letterboxd page, he gets the sole credit, and not Patrick Marber, who wrote the original screenplay.
Marber is no slouch, a Tony-winning playwright who also wrote the Oscar-nominated script for “Notes on a Scandal” and the Golden Globe-nominated “Closer.”
Then again, this isn’t the first time PTA has done a rewrite for Scorsese. Back in 2023, two solid industry sources told me that he rewrote the entirety of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and this was, again, at DiCaprio’s request. None of the trades reported on it. Was this out of respect for credited “Killers” screenwriter Eric Roth? Why should such a story be buried? It’s a big deal—Scorsese and PTA collaborating on a film together is cinephile catnip.
“What Happens at Night” has been described as a “dream-like story” involving a married American couple who travel to a small, snowy European town to adopt a baby. While staying in a nearly deserted hotel filled with enigmatic figures—a flamboyant singer, a corrupt businessman, and a magnetic faith healer—they confront a strange world that challenges both their marriage and their sense of reality.
Alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, the rest of the “What Happens at Night” cast includes Jared Harris, Patricia Clarkson, and Mads Mikkelsen. Apple is producing. A 2027 release is no doubt being eyed.
Here's a small scoop for Sunday night. Nothing too exciting, since it concerns the once-promising Ben Wheatley, a filmmaker who broke out with the cult-horror gut-punch of "Kill List" and "A Field in England.”