Shah Rukh Khan has frequently joked that the solely motive he by no means pursued a profession in Hollywood is due to the fact his English is poor. While that’s simply him being self-deprecating, SRK honestly got here shut to making a essential Hollywood debut with a deliberate movie titled Xtreme City.
The movie would’ve been co-produced with the aid of none different than Martin Scorsese, and directed with the aid of his historical collaborator Paul Schrader, who is first-rate recognised for writing Taxi Driver. It would’ve featured Shah Rukh as a don, and co-starred Leonardo DiCaprio, who at that factor already had a lengthy and profitable innovative partnership with Scorsese, as a cop. So, why did the undertaking fall apart?
Shiekh similarly described the film’s storyline in a 2011 interview with PTI. He said, “It’s a specific variety sof film, one the place each Indian and American protagonists are balanced human beings and the story treats them in their full complexity besides both way of life being diminished or taken for granted. It’s a cross-cultural thriller designed for each Bollywood and Hollywood. And if we get it right, this will be an strive at real international entertainment.”
Xtreme City used to be supposed to be co-produced through SRK’s Red Chillies Entertainment and Scorsese’s Sikelia Productions, and ultimately, this may have been a important purpose at the back of why the movie by no means honestly took off.
In a 2013 interview with Open Magazine, Schrader mirrored on the deliberate project. “Well, in the end, I don’t suppose Shah Rukh desired to make it. It used to be without a doubt up to him, and I simply obtained the feeling that he was once by no means going to be comfy doing an worldwide movie that he didn’t control. You be aware of that the whole thing SRK does, he has whole manage over? So if he did some thing like this at an worldwide level, he wouldn’t have that control. I assume in the quit he wasn’t that comfy now not being a hundred per cent in control. We did have a script, which used to be a hundred per cent paid for. We additionally had a assembly with SRK and Leo in Berlin, however neither of them virtually ever committed. There was once a lot of waiting—maybe they had been ready for every different to commit, however it in no way quite happened.”
Schrader stated that he due to this fact met Salman Khan for the role, however talks didn’t proceed past a factor due to the fact that would’ve intended that SRK would be out completely.
Neither Shah Rukh nor DiCaprio has been connected to a cross-cultural movie on the grounds that then. Schrader, in latest years, has re-established himself as one of the most revered writer-directors in Hollywood. DiCaprio is poised to re-collaborate with Scorsese in subsequent years’ Killers of the Flower Moon, whilst Shah Rukh will make a return to starring roles after 4 years with January’s Pathaan.
