Proposed edits to his movie Taxi Driver made the director so furious, he threatened to take the law into his own hands
Oscar-winning film director Martin Scorsese threatened to buy a gun when in a rage at a film studio, according to a new docuseries about his life. After suggested edits to his 1976 movie Taxi Driver, which starred Robert De Niro, he flew into such a fury that he began threatening to take the law into his own hands.
“Marty was very upset,” says Steven Spielberg. “We get a call at the office: ‘Steve, Steve, it’s Marty. Can you come over to the house? They want me to cut all the blood spurting, they want me to cut the guy who loses his hand.’”
“He was going crazy,” adds fellow director Brian De Palma. “I mean, the story is he wanted to kill the head of the studio.”
Scorsese himself claims that his plans were slightly less extreme, even if he did claim at the time that he had every intention of buying a weapon. “I don’t know. I was angry. I said I was going to threaten them, or maybe just shoot or something. I had no idea,” he says.
