Producer Scott Rudin Joins Martin Scorsese's Frank Sinatra Biopic At Universal

EXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures has set Scott Rudin to produce Sinatra, the film Martin Scorsese will direct about the life of singer-actor Frank Sinatra. Rudin joins Mandalay's Peter Guber and Cathy Schulman, who brought in the project to the studio almost two years ago after they secured life and music rights from Frank Sinatra Estates, which is a joint venture of the estate of Ol' Blue Eyes and the Warner Music Group. Phil Alden Robinson had been the original writer, but I'm told they are looking for another scribe. Scorsese's Sikelia is also producing.

Rudin, nominated twice in the Best Picture Oscar race this year for producing The Social Network and True Grit, produced the 1999 Scorsese-directed Bringing Out the Dead. Rudin's currently producing the David Fincher-directed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which Steve Zaillian adapted from the Stieg Larsson novel, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the Stephen Daldry-directed adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's novel that stars Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. He is prepping at Paramount the Sacha Baron Cohen comedy The Dictator, and at Universal he's got the Paul Greengrass-directed Martin Luther King Jr. assassination drama Memphis.

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