The Daily Dish: May 14

-- Scorsese set to helm Sinatra biopic. According to Variety, Universal Pictures and Mandalay Pictures have tapped award-winning director Martin Scorsese to direct and produce a film chronicling the iconic crooner’s life. Scorsese has expressed his interest in bringing Frank Sinatra’s life to the big screen in the past but the project never got off the ground. This version has been in the development stage for over the past two years while the production companies have been securing the life and music rights from the Sinatra estate and the Warner Music Group. No cast has been announced although Universal Picture’s Cathy Schulman has put forward Leonardo DiCaprio’s name as a possibility because of his obvious creative ties with the director. She points out that whoever is eventually cast in the lead role won’t have to have a strong singing background as all the film’s music would use the original Sinatra vocals. She describes the film itself as an “unconventional biopic that will touch on all phases of [Sinatra's] life.” The legend’s daughter, Tina Sinatra, has given her seal of approval for the project saying, "My father had great admiration for the talent of the people he chose to work with, and the talented people who worked with my father had great admiration for him. It is personally pleasing to me that this paradigm continues with Marty Scorsese at the helm of the Sinatra film." Despite the immensely filmable life Sinatra led, full of famous faces, leading ladies, possible mafia ties, kidnappings, and heartache, it’s perhaps surprising that this is the first real attempt to bring Ol’ Blue Eyes to the big screen. I don’t know about you but I can’t wait to see where they go with this. Who do you think should be cast in the lead role?

-- NPH heads up the Tony Awards. The award show, honouring the best in theatre on New York’s famed white way, is set to air June 7 with actor Neil Patrick Harris as host. Though known to the masses for his roles as Doogie Howser, Barney Stinson (on TV’s “How I Met Your Mother”) and as a fictional version of himself (in Harold and Kumar 1 and 2), NPH is well-known to the Broadway crowd for his starring turns in Cabaret, Assassins and Proof. The actor is apparently thrilled to have been chosen to steer the annual gala, saying in a statement; "The discipline of live theater - doing the same perfect thing night after night, eight times a week - never ceases to amaze me. I'm truly honored to have been chosen as the master of ceremonies for this year's Tony Awards, and I hope to help provide a first-class evening for all." As Barney Stinson might say, awesome!

-- Studios war over Terminator franchise. The fourth film in the saga, Terminator: Salvation, opens in Cineplex theatres next Wednesday but the future of the franchise is up for grabs as no distributor is locked in past this film. MGM has first crack at any fifth Terminator film but industry insiders have leaked to Variety that the studio plans to attempt to secure rights for all future films, causing a potential rivalry with both Warner Bros., the domestic rights owner of the franchise, and Sony Pictures, who owns the international distribution rights. The price tag attached to a bid from MGM (or from any other studio) is up the air as everyone waits to see how the fourth film fairs(fares – ha!) at the box office. If predictors are on target, MGM could be forced to offer in excess of $50-75 million to secure domestic rights alone. Are you excited to see the new Terminator? Do you want to see the franchise continue on to a fifth film?