Sergio Leone Web Board
General Information => General Discussion => Topic started by: titoli on March 23, 2013, 06:16:42 PM
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9gB-OTs4aw
A very interesting panel of stars of SW with screenplayer Gastaldi. Lots of good anecdotes. Gemma says that he and Leone had a project for a tv series (if I have well understood) quoted above. Gastaldi says that Leone knew very well the movie on Leningrad would never have been made: in fact he didn't write a word. About MNIN Leone fired Michele Lupo because he hadn't understood the thieves business.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9gB-OTs4aw
A very interesting panel of stars of SW with screenplayer Gastaldi. Lots of good anecdotes. Gemma says that he and Leone had a project for a tv series (if I have well understood) quoted above. Gastaldi says that Leone knew very well the movie on Leningrad would never have been made: in fact he didn't write a word. About MNIN Leone fired Michele Lupo because he hadn't understood the thieves business.
Frayling talks about the Colt project (along with the Leningrad project and several others) in the final chapter of STDWD.
if I recall correctly, it was supposed to be called "Colt" (not Once upon a Time the Colt), and it was supposed to be a TV show (maybe a 3-part special or something) with the following premise: a man takes a train from Arizona to the Colt factory in Connecticut, to have a gun made specially to his specifications. That man -- which they wanted to be played by Eastwood -- would then be killed shortly after the gun is made. The guy who kills him then takes his gun, and the gun ends up going all around the West (or maybe all around America, I am not sure) and the story follows the gun, and in that way, through following the gun, we see the story of the West. If I recall correctly, Leone was talking with Sergio Donati about writing it; by this time, I guess they had reconciled.
As for the Leningrad project, it's true that all Leone had was the opening scene and the final scene: the opening scene -- as we have discussed elsewhere -- would have been the most ambitious single shot in cinema history if it could have been pulled off, showing the city of Leningrad under siege; the story would be about an American journalist (Robert De Niro) in Russia, who falls in love with a Russian woman during the siege. The final scene would have shown the woman in a movie theater watching newsreels of the war, and she realizes that the newsreels are being shot by her lover, and then suddenly the camera falls, and she realizes that he has died.
It was to be a very ambitious project, a film that would be partially Soviet-financed. Leone was able to raise an insane amount of money basically just on his reputation; there wasn't even a script beyond the opening scene and final scene.
Again, if you are interested in this, I suggest you read the final chapter of STDWD. Frayling extensively discusses the projects Leone was working on at the time of his passing.