Here’s some late breaking news today: Martin Scorsese is set to direct a biopic about Frank Sinatra, which is being scripted by Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams). That’s about all that’s known so far, as the project is in early stages. Apparently Scorsese, whose past biopics include The Aviator (Howard Hughes) and Raging Bull (Jake La Motta), has been quietly developing this one for a few years and just recently secured both the life and the music rights.

Now it’s up to us bloggers to fill in the rest with speculation about what it will be called, what it will include and, most importantly, who will play the lead. Most writers are guessing that Leonardo DiCaprio will land the part, but I’m hoping Scorsese concentrates on the later years so that Dennis Hopper can reprise his portrayal from the Australian film The Night We Called It a Day. After all, isn’t it about time Scorsese directed Hopper? They were both in the Scorsese-produced Search and Destroy, but that’s just not enough. At least let Hopper play the old Sinatra after DiCaprio (or Robert Pattinson) plays the young version. And obviously Kate Beckinsale gets to reprise her role as Ava Gardner from The Aviator, right?

Also: if the title is anything other than The Chairman of the Board, I’m not going to see it. So what if it’s too close to a movie starring Carrot Top? It’s time to take the name back for Ol’ Blue Eyes!

Okay, let’s see what the rest of the net is saying about this exciting project:

• Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily had the scoop first, though she mentions that its development has pretty much been known for awhile:
  

  That Scorsese might direct this film has been rumored for a year. In fact, [executive producer Tina Sinatra] herself has told journalists in the past that she would “trust Scorsese implicitly” to “present the truth” about her father because he’s also an Italian-American.

• Commenters at Finke’s site have been having lots of fun with casting suggestions, and one person claims DiCaprio is indeed attached, but I like the suggestion made by “writer of wrongs” best:
  

  If not Leo then… Paul Rudd has the looks and can sing. Jamie Foxx as Sammy Davis Jr. Vince Vaughn as Dean Martin.

• Erik Davis at Cinematical responds to the idea of DiCaprio playing Sinatra:
  

  …logically we all must turn to Scorsese’s latest muse, Mr. Leonardo DiCaprio. One imagines his name will creep its way to the top of the list, though, in my opinion, DiCaprio looks a little too boy-ish to play Sinatra. Maybe he’d pass for really young Sinatra (especially the hair and the eyes), but even so I think it would take a little work to turn DiCaprio into a convincable Frank.

• Devin Faraci at CHUD.com adds more questions to the DiCaprio speculation:
  

  Will that be the case? DiCaprio is Scorsese’s new DeNiro, for sure. And young Sinatra was a scrawny kid; it’s just when he got older that Blue Eyes thickened out. Could this be DiCaprio’s Raging Bull, a movie where he packs on a ton of weight?

• Josh Wigler at MTV Movie News sees no problem with him in the role:
  

  No actors are attached to the film yet, but given the amount of projects they’ve worked on recently, could a guy like Leonardo DiCaprio be towards the top of the list? Starting with the aforementioned “Gangs of New York,” DiCaprio has also appeared in the Scorsese-directed “The Aviator,” “The Departed” and the upcoming “Shutter Island.” Seriously, what’s one more team-up for Scorsese and DiCaprio — especially for a film about one of the most celebrated performers of all time?

• Craig Kennedy at Living in Cinema has a bad feeling about this film, but that’s just because he can’t get a good picture of anyone in the lead:
  

  The trick will be finding an interesting arc that doesn’t stick to the biography formula and also casting someone who can capture Sinatra without mimicking him. Offhand, I can’t think of a name actor that fits that bill, but then that’s why they call it “acting” isn’t it?

• Vince Mancini at Film Drunk is in love with this movie already, and not just because of the other project it potentially feeds to the fishes:
  

  And the best part about it is that it probably torpedoes any shot Brett Ratner had at making the Rat Pack movie he had planned with Chris Tucker (seriously though, that was on the table at one point).  Wow, a movie about Sinatra from the guy who did Goodfellas?  Can you imagine?  I think I just wopgasmed.  Can’t stop… gesturing at crotch…

• Richard Lawson at Gawker is also glad this thing potentially shatters Ratner’s plans, worryingly speculates that Chris Pine will be cast in the lead and makes a nice Italian-American joke:
  

  Oh my goodness, it really must be Italian Appreciation Day. Marty Scorsese, beloved maker of mob movies, has signed on to direct a biopic of one Francis Albert Sinatra.

  Yes, that sound you just heard was a pizza pie falling to the ground.

• Though a commenter at Deadline Hollywood Daily believes Tina Sinatra’s involvement will mean no Mafia mentions, Kevin Coll at Fused Film thinks we can be assured that it will be covered:
  

  It was no secret that much of Sinatra’s career is owed to his connections with guys like Carlo Gambino, Sam Giancana, Lucky Luciano and Joseph Fischetti. His Mafia ties, his ardent New Deal politics and his friendship with John F. Kennedy, he was a natural target for J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. However that is one small part to his great life…

• The Playlist brings up the question of when this thing is actually getting made:
  

  No word on when this one is happening. Scorsese is currently filming his sure to be oatbran-fun, dry and austere Jesuit-priest picture “Silence” — last reports of which said Daniel Day-Lewis, Benicio Del Toro and Gael Garcia Bernal were starring — and  also has a crime mob drama with DeNiro in development called, “I Heard You Paint Houses” (mob slang for contract killings), plus a documentary on George Harrison that we haven’t heard any movement on in over a year (likely overextended, he  ditched a Bob Marley one in February of last year).