The Audition

Remember that corporate-sponsored short film Martin Scorsese made with Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Brad Pitt that reportedly cost $70 million (most of which the actors collected)? It’s finally leaked online for you to watch from behind your fingers.

The Audition was made to promote Melco Crown Entertainment’s new $3.2 billion Hollywood-themed casino resort Studio City, and got its premiere this week when it opened its doors.

Someone managed to capture the 15-minute short on their smartphone, and it’s now on YouTube (below, at least for the time being).

Hollywood stars can’t mask turmoil behind Macau casino opening

In fairness, it could be a lot worse. There are some classic Scorsesian shots in there, the all-vying-for-the-same-part plot isn’t a terrible idea and there’s been more egregious examples of corporate shilling in the past, though there is some wince-inducing dialogue in the film, particularly when DiCaprio and De Niro do some awkward banter about the spa services on offer at the resort.

Scorsese, DiCaprio and De Niro all turned up for the red carpet premiere of the film in Macau, though Pitt was nowhere to be seen, said to have ‘prior commitments’.

Read more. Thank you Mark.

An inconspicuous cinema tucked at the back of a South Korean shopping mall is an unexpected setting for the world premiere of a new film by an Oscar-winning director,featuring some of cinemas biggest stars.

But this is just where Martin Scorsese’s “The Audition” starring Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, will debut Saturday (oct 3).

The idea for the film was conceived by Australian playboy billionaire James Packer to promote Studio City, the US$3.2 billion Hollywood-inspired casino he and his partner at Melco Crown Entertainment, Lawrence Ho, are building in the Chinese enclave of Macau, and another similar project titled City of Dreams being built in Manila.

The 16-minute production features in the Short Film Showcase section at the 20th Busan International Film Festival.

It had been scheduled to show first at the Venice Film Festival and was one of the event’s most hotly anticipated screenings, but it was pulled from the programme at the last moment due to “technical problems”, according to a statement released by festival organisers. They had earlier defended showing such a commercially natured production.

“It’s a Scorsese film, not a commercial. The casino paid for the film, but it’s not in the film at all,” Venice director Alberto Barbera told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year.

Read more.