Trouble in the Gangs

It's taken 25 years, cost more than $100 million, has seen more bust-ups than the Tory party and could now make or break the careers of Hollywood's most powerful players.

Gangs of New York may well be the most eagerly anticipated film of 2003, but it's also been one of the most controversial and troubled.

Why did it take so long and cost so much? Did director and producer, as well as lead actors, really fall out, jeopardising the project? And why did a three-and-a-half-hour film due for release last April end up 90 minutes short and nine months late?

I've spent the past two years tracking the lead characters and sifting the truth from the gossip to glean the astonishing story behind Martin Scorsese's epic tale of warring gangs in 19th century New York.

When Scorsese announced the preproduction of Gangs of New York in Variety in 1977, there seemed little hope of it getting made. Hollywood's golden era was ending and a series of box-office flops had the studios running scared of mega-budget movies.

Scorsese returned to the script every five years or so, with Jay Cocks, refining it and hoping someone would have the guts (and the millions) to help get it made. Then, in 1997, superagent Michael Ovitz was desperate for his new client, Leonardo DiCaprio, to work with the Oscarwinning director. Did he have a suitable project?

Thus, Gangs was resurrected and Harvey Weinstein brought his Miramax company to the table with more cash than he'd ever invested in a single picture. What happened to that money, and how the final cut was brutally fought over, are as intriguing as the tale of those original bloodthirsty gangs of Scorsese's film ...

Janaury 2001

Fly to Rome. On the Via del Corso spot Liam Neeson and Brendan Gleeson. Follow at a discreet distance until they disappear into a bar. Scorsese's set in Cinecitta studios is closed to journalists. Make several phone calls to gain access. Unit publicist Larry Kaplan laughs at my request and claims shooting is going "smoothly". That's not what I've heard. Rumours are rife that Scorsese's worried it won't be the masterpiece he'd hoped. DiCaprio is partying too hard and is lectured by Scorsese. DiCaprio plays pinball in a bar every night with his entourage including girlfriend Gisele Bundchen. Daniel Day-Lewis is fed up with DiCaprio and has moved out of the Gangs cast Hotel de Russie with his wife, Rebecca Miller. DiCaprio is thrown out of Hotel de Russie and decamps to The Hilton after one too many late-night parties. Gangs is over-budget and over-schedule.

February 2001

London. Repeated attempts to contact Miramax, which is bankrolling the movie to the tune of $70 million (it leaps to $100 million), are met with stonewalling publicists. The official line is that everything's fine. Clearly, it's not, even if only a third of the tales are true. Hear of an incident in Villa Borgheses park, when a horsedrawn carriage tipped over in filming and DiCaprio pelted lurking paparazzi with manure. Also that in a heated telephone discussion with Weinstein, Marty "hangs up" by throwing the phone out of the window.

March 2001

Filming wraps eight weeks over schedule. Fly back to Rome and interview the director of Cinecitta. He sneaks me onto the Gangs set on Sunday morning. Am suitably impressed by Dante Ferretti's fantastic recreation of higgledy-piggledy 19th century New York. Ship masts lurk over the horizon, fake snow lines the streets. Given strict admonition not to talk or write about my observations.