Packer lays out big bucks to promote new casinos

Top director Martin Scorsese and movie actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro have been engaged by Australian land casino magnate James Packer to promote his company’s new City of Dreams casino in Manila and Studio City in Macau in an advertisement reportedly costing $70 million.

Industry reports claim that the De Niro and DiCaprio were paid $15 million apiece for their services in a mock movie directed by Scorsese on location in the Philippines to promote the glitzy land operations.

Packer’s Melco Crown Entertainment has invested $3.2 billion in the new land casino properties.

The one-minute commercial, titled The Audition, focuses on the two actors sizing each other up and then squaring off for the same lead role in a fake movie directed by Scorsese. Boardwalk Empire creator and The Wolf of Wall Street and The Sopranos writer Terence Winter wrote the script.

The full cut of the short film will premiere at the official launch of Studio City in mid-2015.

The publication Deadline and other film blogs are reporting there will be a follow up advertisement starring Brad Pitt.