Martin Scorsese, Irwin Winkler & John Carney Team For Musical ‘Fascinating Rhythm’ Inspired By Life & Music Of George Gershwin

Here’s a hot one. Film world titans Martin Scorsese and Irwin Winkler are teaming up with Modern Love showrunner and Begin Again director John Carney on the musical feature Fascinating Rhythm, inspired by the life and music of legendary American composer George Gershwin.

Oscar winners and regular production partners Scorsese and Winkler will produce, with Carney set to direct from a script co-written with Chris Cluess.

The trio have developed the original musical drama (named after the famous Gershwin song), which is described to us as “a young woman’s magical journey through past and present New York City, inspired by the life and music of American composer George Gershwin.”

We hear the Gershwin estate is on board and the film will feature the iconic composer’s music throughout.

Endeavor Content, which also developed and packaged, is out to market on the hot package.

Gershwin’s compositions spanned both popular and classical genres. Among his best-known works are “Rhapsody In Blue,” “An American In Paris,” songs “Swanee” and jazz standard “I Got Rhythm” and opera Porgy and Bess, which birthed the hit “Summertime.” After moving to Hollywood, he composed a host of film scores. The great talent tragically died of a brain tumor in 1937 at age 38 soon after receiving his sole Oscar nomination for the song “They Can’t Take That Away From Me.”

Musician-turned-filmmaker Carney is a good fit for this with a strong background in music-themed movies such as lucrative romance Once, Oscar-nominated box office hit Begin Again and Golden Globe-nominated Sing Street.

Scorsese has long wanted to make a movie about Gershwin. Soon after Raging Bull, one of the many movies on which he has teamed with Winkler, the filmmaker was set to team with his Taxi Driver writer Paul Schrader on a Gershwin biopic until the pair fell out over another project. John Guare was brought on instead, and it was close to production in 1993, with Richard Dreyfus and Robert De Niro eyed to star, but the film ultimately never got the greenlight from Warner Bros. Steven Spielberg also was close to making a biopic of Gershwin in 2010 with Zachary Quinto aboard to play the composer.

Scorsese and Winkler have formed one of Hollywood’s most enduring collaborations, working on movies such as Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Silence and The Irishman. Winkler is also well known for producing movies including the Rocky and Creed franchises, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? and The Right Stuff.

Winkler is repped by attorney Dave Feldman, Scorsese by LBI Entertainment and WME. Carney is repped by WME and Casarotto, and Cluess is repped by Bruce Brown.