Whenever Martin Scorsese announces a new project these days, the first question is usually what part Leonardo DiCaprio will be playing because DiCaprio starred in five of Scorsese’s last six films. A few decades back DiCaprio’s name would’ve been replaced with Robert De Niro since De Niro starred in eight of Scorsese’s movies from 1973’s Mean Streets to 1995’s Casino.
For the first time ever, Scorsese worked with both of his favorite actors on a short film. De Niro, DiCaprio, and Scorsese all appear in a trailer for a short titled “The Audition”, which is a commercial for City of Dreams Manila, a casino in Manila Bay, Philippines. In the trailer, De Niro and DiCaprio are up for the same part in Scorsese’s next film and the tension boils over between the two as the tour the beautiful casino.
If filming the spot in the ritzy casino wasn’t reward enough, each actor reportedly received $13 million for the two-day shoot. Yes, $13 million EACH. The entire short film was rumored to have a budget of $70 million, but it isn’t clear how much Scorsese cleared for his dual role as director and actor.
We’ll see more of “The Audition” in the coming weeks, probably way before DiCaprio and De Niro have finished spending the money they got from it.
