In an era where it seems like every beloved movie is coming out of the woodwork to get a sequel, it feels like we might be safe from an update on what Travis Bickle is doing today.
Recently, Paul Schrader sat down with IndieWire to talk about his new movie, Oh Canada! It premiered in competition at Cannes this week.
During that talk, they broached the idea of a sequel to Taxi Driver. It had long been rumored that Schrader was trying to make one, but he told the story as if Robert De Niro wanted to do it.
Schrader said, “It’s not true. Robert is the one who wanted to do that. He asked Marty and I. Now, I don’t want to slag De Niro, but a lot of his decisions sometimes have financial motivations. I’m sure someone had said to him, “You know, if you do Taxi Driver 2, they can pay.” So he pressed Marty on it and Marty asked me and I said, “Marty, that’s the worst fucking idea I’ve ever heard.” He said, “Yeah, but you tell him. Let’s have dinner.” So we had dinner at Bob’s restaurant and Bob was talking about it. I said, “Wow, that’s the worst fucking idea I’ve ever heard. That character dies at the end of that movie or dies shortly thereafter. He’s gone. Oh, but maybe there is a version of him that I could do. Maybe he became Ted Kaczynski and maybe he’s in a cabin somewhere and just sitting there, making letter bombs. Now, that would be cool. That would be a nice Travis. He doesn’t have a cab anymore. He just sits there [laughs] making letter bombs.” But Bob didn’t cotton to that idea, either. [Laughs.]”
This is a very funny take on what Bickle would be doing, but it’s also an honest look at collaboration between artists on a project.
Of course, they should have a conversation about where Bickle would be because you never know what could spark. I’m glad they didn’t choose to pursue something just for cash, but I like how open they were to hearing one another out.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
Author: Jason Hellerman
This article comes from No Film School and can be read on the original site.
