Category: 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.

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The Venice Film Festival premiere of Martin Scorsese’s star-studded new short film that was set for next month has been canceled.

“The Biennale of Venice regrets to announce that the short film The Audition by Martin Scorsese will not be presented at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival,” festival organizers said in a statement to EW. “We have just been informed by the production that due to unexpected technical problems the film could not be here in time.”

Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt, and Scorsese himself star in The Audition, which casts the high-wattage actors as themselves in a battle to win a part in Scorsese’s next (fake) film. The short was first announced back in August of last year, and was made, in part, to promote Melco-Crown Entertainment casinos in Macau and Manila. Terrence Winter, screenwriter of Scorsese and DiCaprio’s The Wolf of Wall Street, wrote the script for The Audition, which was produced by Brett Ratner.

Earlier this year, teaser trailers for the short debuted online, but were later removed.

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The 72nd Venice Film Festival (Sept 2-12) has unveiled the 55 features – mixing star vehicles and international auteurs – that will make up this year’s official selection.

Venice director Alberto Barbera and Biennale president Paolo Baratta announced the line-up this morning.

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The strand will also feature Martin Scorsese’s The Audition, a 16-minute short film – with a reported $70m budget – promoting the opening of Melco-Crown’s movie-themed resort and casino in Macau, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Robert de Niro.

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