With DiCaprio reportedly weighing a starring role in Scorsese's planned biopic of Alexander the Great and noshing after hours with Weinstein, is he more likely to support Gangs than Catch Me? ''Complete garbage,'' says Sunshine. ''He's going to be doing a lot to promote both movies.'' Sunshine also calls speculation about a Best Actor Oscar campaign for either role premature.
It wasn't supposed to happen like this. Gangs, which began shooting in August 2000, was originally scheduled to open last Christmas. Post-9/11 concerns about the film's violence pushed Scorsese's opus from 2001 to July 12, where it would have collided with DreamWorks' Road to Perdition. Then, on April 5, Miramax announced the switch to Dec. 25. ''Neither move made a lot of sense to me,'' says Tharp, who staked Catch Me's Christmas claim on March 28 while the film was still in production. Last summer, DreamWorks partner Jeffrey Katzenberg declined an offer from Weinstein to settle the matter with a coin toss.
So why wouldn't Miramax release Gangs earlier in the fall? After all, Scorsese told Entertainment Weekly last May that he'd have Gangs ''ready in July.'' But the director is a notorious tinkerer who spent a year in postproduction on 1993's The Age of Innocence. And while the studio denies reports of recent reshoots to plump up the DiCaprio-Diaz love scenes, Scorsese did scrap Oscar winner Elmer Bernstein's score for new music by Howard Shore that won't be completed until November. ''It's really not up to me to decide the release date,'' Scorsese said in May, ''but I don't think you should open the two on the same day.''
Even with more than two months to go, a date switch would be tricky for either studio. Television ad time gets pricier closer to air date, and most December weekends have been gobbled up: Analyze That opens Dec. 6, Star Trek: Nemesis on Dec. 13, The Two Towers on Dec. 18, and Denzel Washington's directorial debut, Antwone Fisher, on Dec. 20. Hold the movie a week past Christmas and you're out of the Oscar race.
And that's not the only timing issue to consider. DiCaprio's once-ardent fan base may have grown bored waiting for a follow-up to 2000's The Beach. According to a September poll, readers of Seventeen magazine believe Jennifer Love Hewitt and Christina Applegate have better chances of making a comeback. The fickle girls gave DiCaprio a 20 percent shot, besting only the 12 percent odds for ex-Wonder Years star Fred Savage. ''There's always a new hunk to love,'' says Pandya. ''They're a dime a dozen.''
While Leo mania may have peaked, Gangs Leo vs. Catch Me Leo will be a battle of titanic proportions -- and we won't know until Christmas if either goes down with the ship. (Additional reporting by Josh Young)
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