Scorsese to make Elizabeth Taylor biopic?

After filming both his first kids movie and his first 3D movie in one fell swoop, Martin Scorsese may be looking to make his first love story. Paramount is developing a movie based on “Furious Love,” the biography about the love affair between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton with Scorsese attached to direct.

Scorsese and Paramount beat out other bidders for the property including, most notably, Natalie Portman who was looking to star, and recent Oscar-winner David Seidler (THE KING’S SPEECH). The film’s producers have already struck a deal with Burton’s widow and are working on finalizing a deal with Taylor’s estate.

I won’t get into the whole Burton/Taylor affair here (this is a good, albeit brief, refresher) but rest assured it’s got all the things good Hollywood movies are made of – love, drama, booze, scandal, resentment, etc.

But the question is, will Scorsese ever actually make the film? He’s long wanted to make an old-Hollywood movie and has been developing a Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin biopics. Would he scrap both of those he’s been working on for so long to work on a brand new project? Possibly, but he’s also wrapping HUGO CABRET, filming SILENCE next and then teaming with Lars von Trier for THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS.

But like it or not, Scorsese has become more of a director-for-hire in recent years (see both SHUTTER ISLAND and HUGO CABRET) than an auteur. This is not meant to diminish his skills as a director just that he’s not making his own movies anymore, he’s making studio movies and perhaps this Taylor/Burton biopic will be a part of that new process…