Leone's Leningrad

The project was to star Robert De Niro and to be directed by Sergio Leone

plot

Robert De Niro is a US war journalist in the seige of Leningrad during world war two, he falls in love with a russian girl, and the film was to depict their relationship amid the chaos and violence of the seige.

opening sequence

No script existed Leone was able to sell the film and raise a then record 100m dollar budget on just his plan for an ambitious opening scene:

"I start with a close up of Chostakovich hands. Those hands are on the piano. The camera will be on helicopter and the close up will be shot through the open window. We are watching hands trying to find the notes of the Leningrad Symphony. And finally the musician finds them. It is a repetitive tune. It is starting with 3 instruments, than 5,10, 20, then 100. This music will be on during the Ouverture. Just one single sequence nobody made before: the camera goes from the hands, to the back of the room, discovering the musician’s bedroom. Then, the image goes outside through the window, on the street. Morning dew. 2 men are walking. They are not soldiers but they are carrying rifles. They get on a tramway. The camera is following the tramway. The music is still on. The tramway stops several times. Other men are getting on. They are all carrying weapons. Then the tramway is getting suburbs. It stops in a small square where many other tramways and trucks. The men are leaving the tramways and get into the trucks. The camera is now following the trucks. The music is still on and it is still the same sequence, no cuts. No inserts. Now we are getting the trenches that protect the city. The music is getting louder with more and more instruments. The Russians are settling in the trenches. Suddenly the camera goes across the wide steppe. The music is louder and louder till the camera is shooting 1000 germen tankers, ready to shoot. And while the first explosions mixed with the music, I stop. Next sequence: an opening curtain. It is Chostakovich concert. 5000 people in the hall. 180 musicians are playing: credit titles!"

result

Due to Leone's death the film was never made.