WILL THE OSCAR GO TO MARTIN SCORSESE AND THE DEPARTED

After Gangs of New York, the 19th century depiction of Irish gangs, director Martin Scorcese took his fascination with the Irish mob into modern times with T…

Could this finally be the year that Martin Scorcese takes home an Oscar? Martin has become the Susan Lucci of film, nominated seven times and not once a winner. The prolific director who has been making gangster genre films since the 70s returned to what he does best in The Departed, the story of the Massachusetts police taking down the Irish mafia.

Scorsese discusses what drew him to make another film about wiseguys.

“After having done The Aviator and The Gangs of New York I was looking for something that I could find another way of dealing with genre. Genres that came out of the old Hollywood tradition, in this case you might call a gangster genre or a cops and robbers genre or whatever. But in any event a noirish kind of film.”

The Departed also marks the first time Scorsese has directed Jack Nicholson who plays Frank Costello, the Irish mob boss.

“To take on a role like Costello in a genre that I’ve kind of felt most comfortable with over the years and to see what he could come up with. And so it took this amount of time but it was really worth it because we had quite a time.”

The 79th Annual Academy Awards could be a winner for Martin Scorsese. We’ll know soon enough as the Oscars air this Sunday live from Hollywood at 8PM on ABC.