Scorsese (and Lewton), 12/11.

You remember The Key to Reserva, Martin Scorsese's wink at Alfred Hitchcock. It's an ad, of course, and Brandweek tells the story behind the short. Thanks, Jerry!

Ireland Online reports that Dustin Hoffman's said he turned down Taxi Driver because, when he met Scorsese, he "thought the guy was crazy!"

Updated through 12/14.

"I had a need to tell a story in pictures - literature was not in the house. I had a need to tell stories that came from my world, stories that were very different than what was on screen, but just as dramatic. These stories moved me so much, I felt desperate. I saw a whole universe right there, very vivid. It took only a short while before I realized that such a universe could be expressed in film." Scorsese, in Stephen Hunter's profile for the Washington Post.

"[I]n tandem with the Turner Classic Movies premiere broadcast of Martin Scorsese's new documentary Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows [directed by Kent Jones] on Monday, January 14, 5:00 pm PT, I thought now would the perfect time for this perfect opportunity," writes Michael Guillén. "So I'm announcing the Val Lewton Blogathon starting Monday, January 14, 2008, and running throughout the week so that writers can either react to the TCM program lineup or wax eloquent from memory on their favorite Lewton film."

Update, 12/14: "At this week's Marrakesh Film Festival, no event has been as keenly anticipated as the masterclass with Martin Scorsese," writes Arifa Akbar in the Independent. "Plot, in his opinion, is secondary - or, at least, it has never much interested him. Character development is everything. 'I don't know about plot,' he says. 'In The Departed, I didn't do plot because I got sidetracked by characters, even if I did get really mad at myself about it. There was no plot in Taxi Driver, The Last Temptation of Christ hardly had a plot, Aviator and Raging Bull didn't.'"

Posted by dwhudson at December 11, 2007 7:36 AM