UPDATE: This is why I loathe rumors. Lars von Trier’s business partner Peter Aalbaek Jensen tells ScreenDaily “I have seen it [the story] in the Danish film magazine and what is written there is not true,” and that it’s all “rubbish.” Lesson learned. If the Danish say something, don’t listen to it.

Apparently Lars von Trier, director of the recent controversial film, Antichrist, is now the Jigsaw Killer of all film makers, setting challenges at the feet of his peers.

Many reports out of the Berlin Film Festival state that von Trier is challenging none other than Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro to remake their 1976 classic, Taxi Driver. The news is so insanely preposterous that it wasn’t even worth a glance at first; but with more and more reports indicating that an announcement will come soon, we all can’t help but wonder: is this really true?

This is not the first time that von Trier has done this, either. Back in 2003, the director challenged Jørgen Leth to remake his own 1967 classic The Perfect Human, which is von Trier’s favorite film. To up the stakes, von Trier pushed him to actually remake it five different times, with five different obstacles presented for each one. The result was a sort of documentary called The Five Obstructions, which showcased the challenges.

Madness!

It was just yesterday that were reporting that Scorsese and De Niro were going to be re-teaming for a new mobster movie, and that was truly exciting. This, however, is incredibly strange at the moment, and Scorsese said nothing about it in his quotes.

Hopefully some insight and official announcements come down the line very soon in regard to all of this, and we can find out what in the hell is going on!

One thing I have discovered, however, is that I need to see The Perfect Human and The Five Obstructions immediately.

[Source: Variety]