Frank Sinatra’s daughter Tina turned down a biopic of her father, which was to star Kevin Spacey as the singer.
The film was to be directed by Taxi Driver and Raging Bull writer Paul Schrader, and he indicated last week that he was ready to work with Spacey, despite repeated (and repeatedly denied) allegations of sexual misconduct in his against. ‘I wouldn’t use Kevin if he had been convicted. But he was not convicted,” he stated.
However, when I met him at a dinner in Cannes this week, Schrader, 77, told me that the project was not going ahead because of opposition from Sinatra’s daughter.
“We had a script that was great and we were ready to go, but Tina wasn’t interested,” he said. ‘We couldn’t get permission from her for the music and you can’t do it without that.
“Tina is protective, very protective, of her father’s image and this was not an entirely flattering portrait of him. I think Kevin would have been fine,” she added. “He was a great Bobby Darin (in Beyond the Sea).”
Frank Sinatra’s daughter Tina (pictured) turned down a biopic of her father
The film was going to star Kevin Spacey (pictured) as the singer. The actor has not worked in Hollywood since several men accused him of sexual misconduct starting in 2017.
Frank Sinatra (left) and his daughter Tina Sinatra (right) at their wedding
The script focuses on Sinatra at the end of his career, after Mia Farrow, when he made several comebacks, while battling health problems and controversies.
Spacey was moved by Schrader’s support, which follows positive statements about him made by Liam Neeson, Stephen Fry and Sharon Stone. At a dinner hosted in his honor by fashion house Lanvin and film magazine A Rabbit’s Foot, Schrader said Spacey contacted him twice by email to express his gratitude. Schrader attended the Festival with his film Oh, Canada! starring Richard Gere as a documentary filmmaker on his deathbed, and Jacob Elordi as a younger version of him.
Spacey is a jazz fan and enthusiastic singer (the vocals on 2004’s Beyond The Sea were all his) and has been seen singing Sinatra in bars in Baltimore.
The actor has not worked in Hollywood since several men accused him of sexual misconduct starting in 2017.
In 2022, a New York court dismissed a sexual assault lawsuit filed by fellow actor Anthony Rapp. Last summer he was acquitted of nine charges against him in London.
This month, ten more men came forward with allegations of alleged abuse in Spacey Unmasked, a two-part Channel 4 documentary. Spacey called it “one-sided” and “inaccurate.”